Teacher Guide Chronology: Leo Frank Case Timeline

1913 1914 1915

April 26 – Murder of Mary Phagan February 17 – The decision in the April 19 – The U.S. Supreme Court April 27 – Mary Phagan’s body is trial is affirmed by the Georgia rules against Leo Frank. His discovered by Newt Lee, night Supreme Court execution is rescheduled watchman of the National February 24 – Jim Conley is found for April 25. Another appeal Pencil Company guilty of being an accessory to by Leo Frank’s attorneys April 28 – A reward is offered for the murder of Mary Phagan. is turned down by the U.S. information leading to the He is sentenced to a year on Supreme Court. arrest of the murderer of a chain gang. Leo Frank’s June 9 – A request for clemency for Mary Phagan. Newspapers in execution is set for April 17 by Leo Frank is rejected by the Atlanta compete to print each Judge Ben Hill. Georgia Prison Commission. new development in the case. April 16 – Leo Frank’s attorneys again June 21 – Governor John Slaton April 29 – Leo Frank is taken into move for a new trial. The commutes Leo Frank’s death police custody and identified execution, set for the next day, sentence to life imprisonment. as a suspect in Mary Phagan’s is postponed. The response to the murder. April 17 – Judge Hill denies the motion commutation is swift and April 30 – The official investigation for a new trial. violent. There are riots in the begins. April 25 – Leo Frank is examined and streets of Atlanta and mobs May 1 – Jim Conley is taken into police determined to be sane. converge on the governor’s custody and questioned. In his November 18 – The request by Leo residence. testimony, Conley accuses Leo Frank’s attorneys for a review July 18 – Leo Frank’s throat is Frank of the murder. of the case is rejected by the slashed by a fellow prisoner May 6 – A grand jury is formed to Georgia Supreme Court. in Milledgeville, Georgia. It is review evidence in the case. December 7 – The U.S. Supreme not certain that Leo Frank will May 8 – The investigation by the Court refuses to review the survive the attack on his life. coroner is completed. Leo Frank Case. August 17 – During the night, May 24 – Leo Frank is indicted for the December 28 – Joseph Lamar, U.S. vigilantes converge on murder of Mary Phagan. Supreme Court Justice, accepts Milledgeville State Prison July 28 – Leo Frank’s trial begins. the petition for habeas corpus, Farm. Leo Frank is taken from August 25 – Leo Frank is found guilty a document issued to bring a his bed and driven almost of the murder of Mary Phagan. party before a court or judge, 200 miles to Marietta. He is August 28 – Judge Leonard Roan to release the party from illegal lynched. sentences Leo Frank to be imprisonment. executed by hanging. October 22 – Leo Frank’s lawyers attempt to get him a new trial. October 31 – The motion for a new trial is denied by Judge Roan.

Atlanta Constitution, August 26, 1913. On hearing the verdict Frank stated, “I am as innocent as I was one year ago.” ii The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited American History Chronology

1911 1914 1915

March 25 – Jewish and Italian April 20 – Company guards and February 8 – D.W. Griffith’s film, Birth immigrant women are killed National Guard troops attack of a Nation, depicts the Ku Klux in a fire at New York’s Triangle striking coal miners at John Klan in a positive light. Shirtwaist Company. D. Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel May 7 – The British ship, the Lusitania, October – The National Urban League & Iron Company. When the is torpedoed by the Germans is organized to help African- strike ends,74 people have died, and sinks in the Atlantic; 1,198 Americans secure equal including eleven children. passengers drown, including 114 employment. June 28 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Americans. Lynchings: Sixty black Americans are heir to the Austro-Hungarian August 17 – Leo Frank, a Jew, is known to have been lynched. throne, is assassinated by a lynched in Atlanta, for allegedly Serbian nationalist. The events murdering an employee at the that follow result in World War I. National Pencil Company. August 15 – The Panama Canal November 14 – Booker T. Washington, 1912 officially opens. well known African American September 26 – The Federal Trade spokesman, dies. January – 25,000 textile workers go on Commission is established to Persecution of Armenians by Turks strike against the American prevent monopolies and unfair begins; this is the prelude to the Woolen Co. of Lawrence, Mass. business practices. Armenian Genocide. April 14-15 – The Titanic sinks. About September – World War I combatants Germans use poison gas as a weapon in 1,500 of 2,200 passengers and participate in the Battle of the World War I. crew members drown. Marne Lynchings: Fifty-six black Americans October 14 – Theodore Roosevelt is Lynchings: Fifty-one black Americans are known to have been lynched. shot during a campaign tour. are known to have been lynched. Roosevelt delivers a speech before going to the hospital. Lynchings: Sixty-one black Americans are known to have been lynched.

1913

February 25 – The 16th Amendment permits the government to levy an income tax. March 10 – Harriet Tubman, former slave, abolitionist and freedom fighter dies. April 11 – The Wilson administration begins government -wide segregation of work places, restrooms and lunchrooms. Summer – Henry Ford introduces the assembly line, producing a thousand Model T’s daily. Ford also establishes a $5 work day. December 23 – The Federal Reserve System is established, providing central control over the nation’s currency and credit. The fiftieth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation is celebrated throughout the year. Lynchings: Fifty-one black Americans are known to have been lynched. Souvenir postcard of the lynching, 1915.Postcards such as these were easily available into the 1940s.

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited iii Acknowledgments

For permission to reprint copyrighted material, grateful acknowledgment is made to the following sources:

Original text from the exhibition, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited by Sandra Berman & Jane Leavey

The Ballad of Leo Frank, adapted from Us and Them, published by Teaching Tolerance

The Press and the Leo Frank Case by Steve Oney

Stereotypes in the Media from Hate Hurts: How Children Learn Prejudice, ADL

Jacob Lawrence, Plates from Migration of the Negro Series Phillips Collection Museum of Modern Art

Jena Six Timeline from About.com

All other images in this publication are courtesy of the Ida Pearle and Joseph Cuba Archives of The Breman unless otherwise noted.

Teacher Guide written, compiled and edited by:

Sally N. Levine Specialist for Teacher and Curriculum Development The Breman

With special thanks to the following members of the Breman staff for their support, guidance, contributions and direction:

Jane Leavey Executive Director

Sandra Berman Archivist

Lili Baxter Director, The Lillian & AJ Weinberg Center for Holocaust Education

Ruth Einstein Webmaster

Graphic design by: Carolyn Dean www.ricedeangraphics.com

iv The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Table of Contents

Chronology: Leo Frank Case Timeline ...... ii American History Chronology ...... iii Introduction: The Prologue ...... iiv

Part I – Setting the Stage Developing a Working Vocabulary ...... 3 Definitions ...... 4 Reconstruction in Georgia – Readings and Discussion ...... 6 The Cotton States Fairs and International Exposition – Readings and Student Activities ...... 8 Henry Grady “The Spokesman of the New South” ...... 9 Henry Grady to the Bay State Club of Boston, 1889 ...... 9 Questions and Activities ...... 9 The Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 Overview ...... 10 Fundamental Causes of the Riot ...... 10 The Immediate Cause of the Riot ...... 10 The Riot ...... 10 The Aftermath ...... 11 Activities and Questions ...... 12

Part II – Introducing the Leo Frank Case Profiles of the Protagonists and Discussion Questions Mary Phagan ...... 15 Leo M. Frank ...... 15 Luther Z. Rosser ...... 16 Jim Conley ...... 16 Hugh Dorsey ...... 16 Tom Watson ...... 17 Judge Leonard Roan ...... 17 Governor John Slaton ...... 18 Alonzo Mann ...... 18 Newt Lee ...... 19 William J. Burns ...... 19 William Smith ...... 19

Part III – The Events of the Leo Frank Case The Crime and the Arrest – Text and Activities ...... 23 Questions ...... 24 The Trial – Text ...... 25 Activities and Questions ...... 26 The Appeals – Text and Questions for Research and Discussion ...... 27 The Remaining Option – Text and Discussion Questions ...... 28 The State Prison Farm, Milledgeville, Georgia, and Lynching ...... 29 The Conspiracy: The Abduction and Lynching of Leo Frank – Questions for Discussion ...... 30

Part IV – The Aftermath The Aftermath ...... 33 Atlanta and the Leo Frank Case – Questions and Activities ...... 34 Profiles of the Protagonists after the Case Jim Conley ...... 35 Governor John Slaton ...... 35 Hugh Dorsey ...... 36 Tom Watson ...... 36 William Smith ...... 37 William J. Burns ...... 37

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited v Table of Contents

Part V – Two Approaches to Teaching the Leo Frank Case The Ballad of Leo Frank adapted from Us and Them, published by Teaching Tolerance ...... 41 Discussion Questions and Writing Assignments ...... 42 At Issue: Scapegoats ...... 43 The Ballad of Mary Phagan ...... 44. Fiddlin’ John Carson ...... 45 The Ballad of Mary Phagan – Questions and Activities ...... 46

Part VI – Creating Context –Themes in American History Segregation - Historical Overview and Research and Discussion ...... 49 Child Labor - Historical Overview ...... 51 Questions and Activities ...... 52 Religious Bias and Incendiary Language - Historical Overview ...... 53 Questions ...... 54 Women’s Suffrage - Historical Overview ...... 56 Activities ...... 57 Growth of the Cities at the Turn of the Century - Historical Overview ...... 58 Activities ...... 59 Jewish Immigration in Atlanta - Historical Overview ...... 60 Activities ...... 61

Part VII – The Press and the Leo Frank Case The Press and the Leo Frank Case by Steve Oney ...... 65 Activities ...... 66 Questions ...... 67 Bias and the Press - Lesson Plan ...... 68 Bias Assessment ...... 69

Part VIII – Lynching as a Theme in the Leo Frank Case Strange Fruit – Lyrics ...... 72 Questions ...... 73 Speech Commemorating African American History Month – Quotes and Questions ...... 74 Photo of the lynching ...... 75 Jacob Lawrence: An Artist’s View of the African American Experience ...... 76 Migration of the Negro Series, number 15 – Color Plate and Questions ...... 76 The First Wave of the Great Migration – Color Plate and Questions ...... 77 Although the Negro was used to lynching… Color Plate and Questions ...... 77 Analyzing Symbols ...... 78 Hate Symbols: How Should We Respond? ...... 79 Jena Six Timeline from About.com ...... 80 Activities ...... 82

Part IX – Reflections on the Leo Frank Case Quotes on the Leo Frank Case ...... 85 Class Activities ...... 86

Chronology: Post-Case Timeline ...... 87

vi The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited The Prologue

By Sandra Berman and Jane Leavey

“Southern trees Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank spontaneous events fueled by an Case Revisited is a special exhibition angry mob intent on taking the law created by The Breman Jewish into its own hands. The victims were bear strange fruit, Heritage Museum. The exhibition never tried in a court of law. The recounts the racially charged and lynchings were public spectacles; Blood on the leaves tragic events surrounding the the faces of the members of the lynch murder of Mary Phagan in 1913 and party and the crowd were captured lynching of Leo Frank two years in photographs. and blood on the root, later. As a Jewish heritage museum, The Breman examines issues and Yet it is not these lynchings that events through the lens of the Jewish have accounted for dozens of Black bodies swinging experience; yet, these concepts and books, four movies and a Broadway values are universal in nature. In play; rather, it is the lynching of in the southern breeze, revisiting the case of Leo Frank, one young Jewish white man that we are confronted with questions of has captured so much attention. individual and moral responsibility, The lynching of Leo Frank was an Strange fruit hanging respect for individual difference, anomaly. Frank was not kidnapped the fragility of the democratic and lynched by a frenzied mob. He process, responsible citizenship was the victim of a state-sponsored from the poplar trees…” and the importance of community. conspiracy organized by well-known This workbook, Seeking Justice: The and prominent individuals who, in Abel Meeropol, 1937 Leo Frank Case Revisited, broadens the wake of a sensational trial and the issues raised by the exhibition multiple appeals, felt betrayed by the to place them in the context of the justice system. history of the time and examine how these same issues affect our lives While articles covering the lynchings today. of African Americans were relegated to the back pages, if reported at all, Strange Fruit, originally written as the lynching of Leo Frank made a poem, was later set to music and national news. The Leo Frank case made famous by jazz great Billie still garners more attention than Holiday. By the time Holiday first the murders of countless others performed the song that would come who met his same fate. Frank’s to be identified with her, there had race, his religion and his northern been more than 3,724 documented upbringing preordained that he lynchings in the United States. would not be another anonymous Decades earlier in the far West and victim of lynch law. Midwest, extra-legal justice in the form of lynching claimed victims who were white, Mexican, American Indian, Asian and African American. In the South, the victims were largely black. Most of these lynchings were

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited vii

Setting the Stage

Developing a Working Vocabulary

People and Organizations Places De Jure segregation Demographic Adolph Ochs Atlanta, Georgia Disenfranchised Alonzo Mann Brooklyn, New York Effigy Andrew Johnson Cobb County Evidence Black Elite Cotton States and Fourteenth Amendment Booker T. Washington International Exposition Fundamental cause Carpetbaggers Cuero, Texas Immediate cause Clark Howell Frey’s Gin Industrial economy Confederacy Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills Infrastructure Fannie Phagan Coleman Fulton County Intolerance Freedmen Marietta Jeffersonian Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles Milledgeville Judaism Georgia Supreme Court National Pencil Company Labor union Henry Grady New South Lynching Hugh Dorsey Tenement Nativism Immigrants Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Nineteenth Amendment Jim Conley Posthumous pardon John Slaton Prejudice John W. Coleman Reconstruction Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Things/Concepts Riots Leo Frank Scapegoat Leonard Roan Affidavit Strikes Luther Rosser Agrarian economy Suffrage Mary Phagan Anti Defamation League Tennessean National Guard Antisemitism Watson’s Magazine Newt Lee Appeal White supremacy Oliver Wendell Holmes Atlanta Constitution Yellow journalism Papist Atlanta Georgian Rabbi David Marx Atlanta Journal Radical Republicans Atonement Reuben Arnold Bias Sam Hose B’nai Brith Scalawags Child labor Tom Watson Citizenship U.S. Supreme Court Clemency Union Commutation W.E.B. Dubois Compulsory attendance William J. Burns Conspiracy William Smith De Facto segregation

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 3 Developing a Working Vocabulary Definitions

People and Organizations Jim Conley – janitor at the National Pencil Scalawags – Southerners who worked Company; important witness in the Leo with carpetbaggers to take advantage of Adolph Ochs – publisher of the New York Frank Case the dire conditions in the South after the Times Civil War John Slaton – Governor of Georgia; com- Alonzo Mann – office boy at the National muted the death sentence of Leo Frank Tom Watson – a populist; a journalist and Pencil Company politician who defended the agrarian South John W. Coleman – second husband of and attacked Jews and Catholics in his Andrew Johnson – President of the United Fannie Phagan; stepfather of Mary Phagan newspaper; an editor who wrote scathing States during Reconstruction pieces about Leo Frank; a U.S. senator Knights of the Ku Klux Klan – a from Georgia Black Elite – economically and socially secret organization that advocates white, successful African Americans Christian supremacy; uses tactics of terror U.S. Supreme Court – the highest court and violence to achieve its aims in the United States; the last court for an Booker T. Washington – African appeal of a verdict American educator; founder of Tuskegee Leo Frank – Northern, Jewish manager of Institute in Alabama the National Pencil Company Union - During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the Carpetbaggers – Northerners who came to Leonard Roan – judge in the Leo Frank United States, the twenty-three states that the post Civil War South to take advantage Case were not part of the seceding Confederacy of the economic, political and social turmoil Luther Rosser – defense attorney in the W.E.B. Dubois - prominent intellectual Clark Howell – managing editor of the Leo Frank Case; former law partner of leader and political activist on behalf of Constitution, member of Georgia House of John Slaton African Americans in the first half of the Representatives twentieth century Mary Phagan – 13 year old worker at the Confederacy - The Confederate States of National Pencil Company; murdered in 1913 William J. Burns – well known private America was the government formed by detective; became leader of the FBI eleven southern states of the United States National Guard – local military units of America between 1861 and 1865 which may be called up for duty by William Smith – attorney appointed to governors in emergency situations or defend Jim Conley; prepared Conley for Fannie Phagan Coleman – mother of situations of civil unrest the Leo Frank trial Mary Phagan Newt Lee – night watchman at the Freedmen - former slaves emancipated National Pencil Company Places before or during the American Civil War Oliver Wendell Holmes – served on Atlanta, Georgia – location of the National Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles - the United States Supreme Court for 29 Pencil Company; home of Leo Frank The Board is a part of the executive branch years; appointed by President Theodore of Georgia’s government, authorized Roosevelt Brooklyn, New York – location of the to grant paroles, pardons, reprieves, childhood home of Leo Frank remissions, commutations, and to restore Papist – usually negative way to refer to a civil and political rights. Roman Catholic Cobb County – location of the home of the Phagan family Georgia Supreme Court – the highest Rabbi David Marx – Rabbi of the Temple court in the state of Georgia; reviews cases in Atlanta, Georgia Cotton States and International already heard in lower courts in the state Exposition – temporarily located in Radical Republicans - took control of the Piedmont Park; international fair to display Henry Grady – a Georgia journalist, federal government during Reconstruction; Atlanta’s growing industrial economy newspaper publisher and spokesman for demanded harsh measures in the South, the New South more protection for Freedmen, and more Cuero, Texas – birthplace of Leo Frank guarantees that Confederate nationalism Hoke Smith – former Georgia governor, was eliminated. Frey’s Gin – location of the lynching of publisher of the Atlanta Journal; considered Leo Frank Georgia’s leading progressive reformer Reuben Arnold – co-counsel on Leo Frank’s defense team with Luther Rosser Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills – site of Hugh Dorsey – Solicitor General and then labor unrest; Jewish owned factory in Governor of Georgia Sam Hose – African American victim of Atlanta torture and lynching in Newnan, Georgia Immigrants – people who have moved in 1899; over 2000 spectators witnessed Fulton County – site of Leo Frank’s from one country to another his murder imprisonment and trial

4 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Marietta – home of the Phagan family, site Bias - a preference or an inclination that Infrastructure – the system of of the lynching, site of Mary Phagan’s grave prevents impartial judgment public works and resources of a particular geographical area Milledgeville – location of Leo Frank’s B’nai Brith – an organization of lodges imprisonment after the commutation of and chapters, founded over 165 years ago, Intolerance - refusal to recognize and his sentence to improve the lives of Jews in America respect differences in opinions or beliefs

National Pencil Company – location of Child labor - the paid employment of Jeffersonian – a publication of Tom the murder of Mary Phagan children below an age determined by law Watson’s in which he was able to influence or custom the beliefs and attitudes of his readers New South – the developing industrializa- tion of the post Civil War South Citizenship – being a member of a state or Judaism - the religious and cultural nation and owing loyalty to its government attitudes and practices of the Jews Tenement – usually in a city, an apartment and being entitled to its protection building which barely meets standards of Labor union – an organization of workers safety, cleanliness and comfort Clemency – showing compassion or formed to improve working conditions, forgiveness in judging or punishing; wages, hours, benefits, etc. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory – a factory leniency; mercy in New York City which employed young Lynching - to execute outside of the law, immigrant women; a fire in the factory Commutation - the changing of a prison usually to hang by a mob and harsh conditions which prevented sentence or other penalty to one less severe the employees from evacuating, led to the Posthumous pardon - to release a person, deaths of over 100 young women Compulsory attendance – required after death, from responsibility for an school attendance of children of a offense certain age Nativism – the policy of rejecting Conspiracy – an agreement by two or immigrants in favor of native populations more people to commit a crime or other Things or Concepts illegal or immoral act Nineteenth Amendment – amendment to Affidavit – a sworn statement made the United States Constitution extending in writing, usually in the presence of a De Facto segregation – segregation that to women the right to vote representative of the court exists in reality, not enforced by law

Agrarian economy – an economy based De Jure segregation – segregation based Prejudice - unfounded feelings, opinions, on agriculture; an economy reliant on farm on law or actions of the state or attitudes, often hostile, regarding a production racial, religious, or national group. Demographics – the characteristics of a Anti Defamation League – organization particular population (based on age, race Reconstruction - time period from 1865 to founded in 1913 “to stop the defamation of or income, for example) 1877 when the states that had seceded to the Jewish people and to secure justice and join the Confederacy fell under the control fair treatment to all.” Disenfranchised - to deprive of a privi- of the federal government before being lege, a protection or a right of citizenship readmitted to the union Antisemitism - discrimination against or prejudice or hostility toward Jews Effigy - a crude image representing a Scapegoat – a person or group made to hated person or group bear the blame and suffer for the sins of Appeal - to apply for review of a case or others particular issue to a higher court Evidence – information presented to a court or jury to provide proof; the Strikes – work stoppages to force Atlanta Constitution - The Constitution testimony of witnesses, records, docu- owners to provide better pay and working was founded in 1868 by Carey Wentworth ments, or objects conditions Styles, an Atlanta lawyer and entrepreneur. Early writers included Henry Grady and Fourteenth Amendment - amendment Suffrage – the right to vote; the exercise Joel Chandler Harris. to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, of the right to vote defining national citizenship and forbid- Atlanta Georgian - The Atlanta Daily ding states from denying basic rights Tennessean – A Nashville, Tennessee Georgian newspaper was founded in 1906. to citizens or other persons; primarily newspaper which published Alonzo Mann’s It was struggling when William Randolph concerned with reintegrating southern revelations in 1982 Hearst purchased it in the spring of 1912. states after the Civil War and defining Using yellow journalism, Hearst was able rights of freed slaves Watson’s Magazine – a monthly magazine to boost the newspaper’s success within a published by Tom Watson short time after its purchase. Fundamental cause – issues which develop over a long period of time White supremacy – the belief that the Atlanta Journal - The Atlanta Journal, an white race is superior to all others and afternoon paper was founded by E. F. Hoge Immediate cause – issue in the short should therefore be in control early in 1883. Hoke Smith purchased the term which ignites tensions which paper in June, 1887. already exist Yellow journalism – journalism that relies on sensational, exaggerated reporting to Atonement – the act of making amends for Industrial economy – economy based on increase its readership a sin or wrongdoing manufacturing and industry

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 5 Reconstruction in Georgia

The Civil War Ends and Reconstruction Begins

The Civil War ended in 1865 with the Confederate government of Georgia was defeat of the Confederacy by the Union. dissolved, replaced by James Johnson, For discussion: Much of the South, including Georgia, an appointee of United States President was left in chaos – with a currency Andrew Johnson. Johnson would remain 1. How had life changed for white which was worthless, railroad tracks in this role until Georgians could Georgians after the Civil War? destroyed, a significant number of establish their own new government, 2. How had life changed for black white males killed or injured, severe one which the federal government Georgians after the Civil War? shortages of food, communities rife would have to approve. 3. What problems in Georgia with crime and representatives of the needed immediate relief? federal government who were unethical The federal government also required 4. What did the federal and corrupt. Georgia to repeal the Ordinance government require from the of Secession, abolish slavery and state of Georgia? In the spring of 1865, the white recognize that the federal government 5. How might Georgians have felt population of Georgia stood at 550,000. was sovereign over the states. By about the federal government at The state now also had a free black December of 1865, Georgia had fulfilled this time? population of 460,000, consisting mostly its obligations and a new governor and 6. How might Georgians have felt of former slaves. In May of that year, the senators were chosen. about Northerners at this time?

Freedmen in Georgia

Former slaves, called freedmen, now former Confederacy to not restrict the roamed the state looking for work. black population through legislation For discussion: Large plantations which had reaped called the Black Code. In Georgia, profits with free slave labor were now blacks were given rights within the 1. What assumptions had white producing markedly smaller harvests. court system, were permitted to own citizens of Georgia made about Cotton production was reduced almost property, could marry and register the status of freed slaves? 85 percent. Food shortages became their children as legitimate under 2. What rights were now given to critical and tensions arose between state law and would endure the same freedmen in Georgia? white landowners and former slaves. punishments for crimes that would 3. What rights were denied to be exacted from white citizens of the freedmen in Georgia? This tension was exacerbated by state. They were not, however, given 4. Explain the order from General an order by Union General William the right to vote or serve on a jury or Sherman and its outcome. Tecumseh Sherman that turned testify against a white person in a court 5. Describe the deprivations from deserted land on the Georgia coast of law. The Fourteenth Amendment to which many white Georgians over to former slaves. This situation the U.S. Constitution, which essentially were suffering after the war’s was short-lived, however, as those who granted full citizenship rights to end. abandoned their property during the blacks, was rejected by the government 6. How might white Georgians war returned home, and the land was of Georgia. have felt after certain rights restored to them and their families. were granted to freed slaves? Why would they have rejected There was an assumption on the part the Fourteenth Amendment? of many Georgians that after slaves 7. Who might these white were freed, they would have limited Georgians have blamed for this? status in terms of political, economic, Why? educational and social opportunity. Georgians were surprised, then, to find that their state was the only one in the

6 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Reconstruction Continues Carpetbaggers, Scalawags and the Knights of the Ku Klux KIan

Citing President Andrew Johnson’s fail- By 1868, the Republican Party in conservative views. By September of ure to reconstruct the South, Congress Georgia was comprised of white and that year, a campaign to remove black passed a series of reconstruction laws black politicians. The derogatory term legislators from the Georgia General in the beginning of 1867. Some of those for Southern-born white Republicans or Assembly proved successful. A black in Congress who supported these new those who lived in the South before the Republican rally held just a week later laws were called Radical Republicans. Civil War, and who allied themselves in Camilla, Georgia ended in violence They expected southern states to ratify with black Republicans was scalawag. and death. These developments led to the Fourteenth Amendment, give black Northerners who came to the South a return of military control of Georgia men the privilege to vote and elect new after the war’s end to profit from the by 1869. state governments. South’s defeat were called carpetbaggers, so named because of the luggage they Along with the demands of the federal carried with them as they traveled from government, things were changing in the North. After the war, anyone who For discussion: Georgia too. No longer was Savannah established residency in the South for the center of Georgia politics. By the end just one year was entitled to vote and 1. Which was the political party of 1867, a state constitutional convention hold political office. During this period of former Confederates and was convened in Atlanta and delegates of change, Jews moved to Atlanta conservatives? came from all parts of the state and in significant numbers. The Jewish 2. Which was the political party of walks of life. Black delegates were also population of Atlanta rose from 26 in Reconstruction and integration? in attendance. This convention agreed 1850 to 600 by 1880. 3. To which party did President to the reforms set forth by the Radical Lincoln belong? Republicans and then added some of It was also in 1868 that the Knights of 4. Besides political gain, how else its own innovations. It called for a free the Ku Klux Klan established itself as could carpetbaggers profit from public school system, requirements for a reaction to the actions of the Radical post-war conditions in the South? black voters, property rights for women, Republicans and the perceived growth 5. Why was the organization, a 4-year gubernatorial term and a state of black political power in the South. Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, capitol in Atlanta. Violence and terror were the tools established at this time? How did the Klan used to deter southerners it promote its views and beliefs? For discussion: from taking positions counter to their

1. Why did Congress consider President Johnson’s Governor Bullock and the End of Reconstruction reconstruction plan a failure? 2. What does the word radical In March of 1868, Rufus Bullock, mean? Why were those in of Augusta, Georgia, was elected For discussion: Congress who proposed the Governor. Bullock was a Republican. new reconstruction plan called Under his administration, Democrats, 1. Explain the difficulties that may Radical Republicans? who controlled the legislature, would occur when a chief executive 3. How did the constitutional not permit elected black Republicans belongs to one political party convention in Atlanta respond to to participate in the state government. and the majority of legislators to the demands of Congress? They interpreted the state constitution another. 4. How did the constitutional as not clearly giving blacks the right to 2. What are the three branches of convention in Atlanta exceed the hold public office. To further erode his government? What is the role of demands of Congress? power, Democrats accused Bullock’s each of the branches? 5. Why had the political power administration of corruption and fraud. 3. What is the system of “checks in Georgia’s past come from From 1869 to 1871, the Supreme Court of and balances”? How did this Savannah and coastal Georgia? Georgia issued a number of rulings which system work in Georgia? 6. Why might the new seat of essentially confirmed the right of blacks 4. Why did Bullock flee from power in Georgia have been to hold office. By July of 1870, Georgia Georgia? relocated to Atlanta? Why was was readmitted to the Union. By the next 5. What was the legacy of Atlanta an up and coming city at election in December of that same year, Reconstruction in Georgia? this time? the Georgia legislature was populated by What attitudes and resentments a majority of white Democrats. Fearing may have resulted from this impeachment and forced restitution for history? his “crimes”, Bullock left Georgia in 1871. In January of 1872, James Smith was elected governor and Reconstruction ended in Georgia.

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 7 The Cotton States Fairs and International Exposition

Background

Prior to the Civil War, cotton was not the most important crop in Georgia. By war’s end, in 1865, cotton began asserting itself as the dominant crop in Georgia’s agrarian economy. At the same time, the popularity of fairs and expositions began to grow. These events were opportunities for cities to bring in tourists and display their economic and cultural assets. They could provide new avenues for business and technology. Ticket from Atlanta Day at the Exposition, 1895. For Atlanta, hosting such events could put the city back on the map as the capital of the New South, and the The 1887 center of the recovering economy of the Student Activities region. An ardent supporter of these Piedmont Exposition expositions was Henry Grady, who used 1. Write an editorial for an his role as editor of the newspaper, the Another exposition, held six years later, Atlanta newspaper in which Atlanta Constitution, as a way to promote did not attempt to draw in visitors from you promote or denounce the his concept of the New South. These far and wide. Instead, it was a showcase concept of an International expositions, then, were like a “coming for the South. Its importance, however, Cotton Exposition in your city. out party” for the South. was demonstrated by a visit by then Be sure to include the reasons President Grover Cleveland to the for your position. exposition. The success of this event was 2. Create a political cartoon its continued identification of Atlanta as a for an Atlanta newspaper in The 1881 International place to visit and conduct business. which you support or reject the concept of an International Cotton Exposition Cotton Exposition in your city. Be sure to include the reasons The first of the expositions held in The 1895 Cotton States and for your position. Atlanta took place in Oglethorpe Park in 3. Design an advertising poster 1881. The goal was to promote Atlanta’s International Exposition for one of the expositions held important role in textile production. in Atlanta. Be sure to include When the construction was complete, Of the three expositions, the 1895 Cotton the goals of the event in your the fair boasted over 1000 exhibits from States and International Exposition had design. 33 states and 6 foreign countries. On the boldest of ambitions: to encourage 4. Write a speech that Grover display was Eli Whitney’s original cotton trade between the South and Europe Cleveland might have gin. People, including former Union and South America as well as to display delivered at the 1887 Piedmont General William Tecumseh Sherman, to America and the rest of the world Exposition. Do some research came from all over the country to see the assets of Atlanta and the rest of about President Cleveland the Exposition. The success of this the South. The exposition included so you may include some event was evident in that it brought exhibits showing the contributions of information in the speech the different sections of the country blacks and women to the New South. about him and his presidency. together and highlighted the growth of There were also entertainments offered the city of Atlanta. to attract visitors. The exposition remained open for over three months and attracted almost 800,000 visitors. It, too, was a success for the region. When it was all over, most of the structures were dismantled. The city of Atlanta purchased the property and later developed it as Piedmont Park.

8 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Henry Grady

“The Spokesman of the New South” Questions & Activities Henry Grady was born in Athens, By 1874 Henry Grady was writing Georgia in 1850, ten years before the editorials in the Atlanta Herald 1. Explain how Henry Grady was beginning of the Civil War. The sectional newspaper. One of his most famous a “man of his time.” Which tensions that would ultimately lead to pieces was titled, The New South. In historical events and conditions secession and war were already evident his writing, Henry Grady attempted influenced the choices he made? at the time of his birth. By the time to promote a move from an agrarian 2. Explain how Henry Grady was a the war began, Henry Grady’s father, to an industrial economy in the South “man of the New South.” What who had been a wealthy businessman as the route by which the South’s did he advocate to improve life in peacetime, joined the Confederate economy, ravaged by the Civil War, in his region of the country? army. Before war’s end, he was killed could be rebuilt. Two years later, Henry 3. Write an editorial advocating a in battle. Grady became a one-fourth owner of change from an agrarian to an the Atlanta Constitution, became industrial economy in the New After the war Henry Grady pursued his its managing editor, and used the South. education at the University of Georgia newspaper to convey his views to the 4. What are some of the reasons and the University of Virginia. In each of public. He wrote about the South’s rise Southerners might reject Henry these venues it quickly became apparent in stature and economic prosperity and Grady’s views on the economy? that he had a talent for public speaking. consistently advocated for the growth of 5. Write an obituary and epitaph After he finished school, in 1869, he industry in the South. for Henry Grady, highlighting moved to Rome, Georgia, where he his accomplishments. entered the field of journalism. It was Henry Grady was only 39 years old when 6. Do some research to find out during this time that he mastered the he died at the end of 1889, but he left his how Henry Grady has been subtleties of Georgia politics. mark on Atlanta and the South. honored since his death.

Henry Grady to the Bay State Club of Boston, 1889

You want to know about the South . My friends, we representative men will tell you about it . I just want to say that we have had a hard time down there . . . .

I attended a funeral once in Pickens County in my State . . . . This funeral was peculiarly sad . It was a poor fellow, whose breeches struck him under the armpits and hit him at the other end about the knee . They buried him in the midst of a marble quarry: they cut through solid marble to make his grave; and yet a little tombstone they put above him was from Vermont . They buried him in the heart of a pine forest, and yet the pine coffin was imported from Cincinnati . They buried him within touch of an iron mine, and yet the nails in his coffin and the iron in the shovel that dug his grave were imported from Pittsburgh . They buried him by the side of the best sheep-grazing country on the earth, and yet the wool in the coffin bands and the coffin bands themselves were brought from the North . The South didn’t furnish a thing on earth for that funeral but the corpse and the hole in the ground . There they put him away and the clods rattled down on his coffin, and they buried him in a New York coat and a Boston pair of shoes and a pair of breeches from Chicago and a shirt from Cincinnati, leaving him nothing to carry into the next world with him to remind him of the country in which he lived, and for which he fought for four years, but the chill of blood in his veins and the marrow in his bones .

Now we have improved on that . We have got the biggest marble-cutting establishment on earth within a hundred yards of that grave . We have got a half-dozen woolen mills right around it, and iron mines, and iron furnaces, and iron factories . We are coming to meet you . We are going to take a noble revenge, as my friend, Mr . Carnegie, said last night, by invading every inch of your territory with iron, as you invaded ours twenty-nine years ago .

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 9 The Atlanta Race Riot of 1906

The emergence of a black elite, a Newspapers in Atlanta increased their Overview group growing in social, economic and readership by resorting to sensationalism political power, also fueled the tensions and yellow journalism. They built fear On September 22, 1906, the city of in Atlanta. This group distanced itself and resentment in their readers through Atlanta became the focus of the problems from the black working class. They had stories of increased violent crime, threats which accrued with the changes in the spent years making political and social of attack by black men on white women, New South. Over a period of days, white connections in the city. They built their the immorality of black saloon life and citizens took to the streets, killing and own communities and businesses and the efforts by the black elite to achieve wounding their black neighbors and looked down on the poor, unemployed equality with whites. destroying property. Although accounts blacks who were coming to Atlanta to conflict regarding the numbers of dead find their fortune. and injured, by the riot’s end, it became clear that this event was a benchmark Tensions were further exacerbated by which altered the ways that black The Immediate Cause the existence of many Jewish-owned and white residents of Atlanta viewed saloons on Decatur Street in Atlanta themselves and their relationships. of the Riot which were frequented primarily by black patrons. It was believed that the An immediate cause is the spark activities which took place in these which sets the situation ablaze. In and Fundamental Causes establishments were immoral and of itself, it might not be adequate to dangerous. Both white citizens and cause an event to occur, but with the of the Riot members of the black elite disapproved underlying fundamental issues in place, of these businesses. There emerged it is the occurrence which sets events As with most historical events, there from this perception the sense that in motion. were many fundamental causes for the white women in Atlanta might be in Atlanta Race Riot of 1906. Fundamental potential danger from these black In the case of the Atlanta race riot of causes are problems which develop and saloon patrons. 1906, many believe that the actions fester for a long period of time. of the local newspapers were the The governor’s race in Georgia in immediate cause of the violence. It The loss of the Civil War and the 1906 also stoked the flames of racial was on the afternoon of September 22, conflicts which resulted from the hatred. Hoke Smith, former publisher 1906, that the newspapers referred to period of Reconstruction created of the Atlanta Journal, was one of the four unsubstantiated attacks by black ongoing tensions between the black candidates. He had the support of Tom men on white women. The accounts and white communities. Whites had the Watson. Both expressed publicly their of the attacks and the language which perception that black southerners were belief that blacks should not have the described them inflamed the local being given preferential treatment. They right to vote and should be kept away populace. These articles provoked were granted voting rights, rights to from the polls. They also believed actions by the local white citizens which participate politically, access to support it was incumbent upon the whites resulted in violence. programs and educational programs. to keep social order so that blacks For a white population still reeling from would be kept in “their place.” Clark the human and financial losses of the Howell was Hoke Smith’s opponent. war, this perceived preference provoked He was the editor of the Atlanta The Riot deep-seated resentment. Constitution. He, too, felt that blacks should be disenfranchised, but that To increase their circulation, Atlanta Growth of the city of Atlanta also the poll tax and restricted white newspapers published extra editions created difficulties. Poor whites and Democratic primary were already an to publicize these attacks on white blacks moved to the city for greater effective means to that end. Howell women. Newsboys took to the streets, opportunities. This led to competition accused Smith of cooperation with holding aloft the inflammatory for jobs, housing and public services. black leaders in the past and a lack of headlines. It did not take long for white The huge influx of population made commitment to the concept of white men and boys to converge on downtown it difficult for cities like Atlanta to supremacy. These angry debates Atlanta carrying guns, knives and any maintain public order and safety. An were covered closely in the local other objects which could be used as increase in crime, a problem in many newspapers. Hoke Smith ultimately weapons. The size of the white mob growing cities at this time, created a prevailed to win the governorship of was estimated in the thousands. The sense of fear amongst the citizenry. Georgia. mayor of Atlanta, James Woodward,

10 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited tried unsuccessfully to discourage the crowds. By nightfall, these crowds moved into the business district.

Black businesses were vandalized and destroyed. Business owners were victimized, often beaten and sometimes killed. Black citizens were dragged off conveyances of public transport and beaten, some to death. A rainstorm which began around 2 a.m. finally caused the white mob to disperse. The state militia was brought into Atlanta to restore order.

On September 23rd, the state militia continued to patrol the streets of Atlanta. Newspapers reported that calm had been restored and that the threat of black violence no longer existed as blacks no longer felt safe to be on the streets. Some blacks met secretly, stockpiling weapons and pledging to defend their homes, businesses and families. At one such meeting in Brownsville, two miles from downtown Atlanta, local police got a tip and conducted a raid. A shootout resulted in one dead officer. State militia arrived, confiscated the weapons and arrested over 250 black men.

By early the next week, community leaders and the press sought to end the Le Petit Journal, October 7, 1906. The race riot was widely reported in the national and violence. The riot was not consistent international press, such as this daily newspaper published in Paris, France. with the perception they wished to promulgate, that Atlanta was, indeed, the centerpiece of the New South. Both national and international press coverage of the riot was damaging for the city.

civil rights movement years later. growing city and the provocations of The Aftermath Interracial dialogue in Atlanta remains the press, led to an outbreak of violence an important aspect of the city’s success that changed the way many saw their The Atlanta race riots of 1906, although today. Another result of these meetings, place in the city. Black communities now over, created concern about new however, was the increased tensions and business leaders retreated to their outbreaks of violence in the city. As a between the black elite and the black own geographical areas of the city. response, some white leaders of the working class in the city. By the end of Georgia passed prohibition laws to community sought to create interracial the riots, economic and racial divisions restrict and abolish the sale of alcoholic cooperation by setting up a meeting in the city were even more marked. beverages. Georgia adopted statewide with some of the black elite. White prohibition in 1908, beginning before participants in the dialogue made sure The number of dead and wounded as a national prohibition, passed into law to establish the fact that the black result of the riots varies from account to in1920. Laws were also passed in leaders were not on equal ground with account. Although ten death certificates Georgia, further restricting the right the whites, but that the conversation were issued at the time, some sources of blacks to vote. Attitudes about blacks was necessary for the good of the mention at least 25 African Americans succeeding in a white society began city. This was an effort to show that dead while others assert that the to change. Although this riot would Atlanta did not need outside influences number may be closer to 100. What is take an insignificant place in Georgia to deal with its problems. Ultimately, clear, however, was that the underlying history for years after it occurred, it these meetings led to relationships racial tensions in the city, compounded changed the texture of the city for a which grew to become part of the by the problems associated with a considerable time.

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 11 The Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 Activities

1. Write an editorial for one of the newspapers about whether or not the city should allow the saloons to stay open.

2. Write a speech for Hoke Smith or Clark Howell in which you explain his views on the role of blacks in Georgia society and politics.

3. Draw a map of Atlanta from 1906. Locate the areas in which events from the riots took place.

4. Read about Booker T. Washington. How did he think black people should make their way in white society? How were his views received after the riot?

5. Read about W.E.B. Dubois. Contrast his views with those of Booker T. Washington. How were his views received after the riot?

Questions

1. As cities grew in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, what kinds of problems developed? How did cities try to deal with these problems?

2. Explain the difference between a fundamental and an immediate cause.

3. List the fundamental causes of the Atlanta Race Riot of 1906.

4. Describe the immediate cause of the Atlanta Race Riot. If the fundamental causes had not been festering over time, do you think this riot would have occurred? Explain your answer.

5. Describe the role of the press in the riot.

6. What are three things the state and city did to try to stop the riot?

7. What is the legacy of the riot?

12 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Introducing the aseC

Profiles of the Protagonists

Mary Phagan For discussion: Mary Phagan was born in Florence, Alabama in 1899. Mary Phagan was the 1. Why did rural families want to daughter of Fannie Phagan and William move to the city at this time? Joshua Phagan who had died three 2. What were factory working months before she was born. Shortly conditions like at this time? after Mary Phagan’s birth, Fannie 3. Why did poor, white families Phagan moved with her children to her send their children to work? family residence in Marietta, Georgia. 4. What happened at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory at around In 1912, Fannie Phagan married John this time? W. Coleman and moved with him and 5. What are the pros and cons of her children to Bellwood, a community child labor – For poor families? near downtown Atlanta. Mary Phagan For children? For factory planned to wait until the following fall owners? to enroll in school and so, like many other girls her age, she took a job at the Mary Phagan in a photo taken in 1913. National Pencil Company. For 12 cents an hour, she secured erasers to pencils. Her brothers and sisters who worked in the factory to pick up her pay. She was the cotton mill made only 5 cents per found dead early the next morning in hour. On the morning of Confederate the factory basement. At the time of Memorial Day, Saturday, April 26, her death, Mary Phagan was almost 14 1913, she dressed up and headed to years old.

Leo M. Frank For discussion: Leo Frank, the son of Rudolph and Rachel Frank, was born in Cuero, Texas 1. Compare Leo Frank’s and Mary on April 17, 1884. The family moved to Phagan’s education. Brooklyn, New York shortly thereafter. 2. Where did Leo Frank grow up His family was Jewish. Leo Frank and where was he educated? completed his public school education How might poor, Southern and in 1906 got a degree in mechanical working families feel about engineering from Cornell University. him? Why? He held jobs in Massachusetts and 3. How was the lynching of Leo New York, but then moved to Atlanta Frank different from other at the request of his uncle, to help run lynchings of the period? the National Pencil Company. In 1910 Consider what you know about Leo Frank married Lucille Selig and the victim and the perpetrators. the newly married couple moved in with In what way was this lynching Lucille’s family. similar to lynchings of the period? On April 29, 1913, three days after Mary Leo Frank and Lucille Selig Frank at the trial. Phagan’s death at the factory where he worked, Leo Frank was brought commuted Leo Frank’s sentence to in by police for questioning. He was life imprisonment. Shortly thereafter, held over for trial, where he was found Leo Frank was abducted from the guilty of her murder and sentenced to prison farm in Milledgeville, driven hang. After all appeals were exhausted, to Marietta and lynched by a group of Governor John Slaton of Georgia prominent Marietta citizens.

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 15 Luther Rosser, defense attorney. Jim Conley in a 1913 photograph. Hugh Dorsey, the prosecutor.

Luther Z. Rosser Jim Conley Hugh Dorsey

Attorneys Luther Rosser and Reuben At the time of Mary Phagan’s murder, At the time of the Leo Frank trial, Hugh Arnold had the task of defending Leo Jim Conley, a janitor at the National Dorsey was 42 years old. He was the Frank. Rosser had an outstanding Pencil Company, was 27 years old. Prior Solicitor General of Fulton County. reputation and was considered very to the murder, Conley had experienced Hugh Dorsey was the prosecutor in the effective at cross-examining witnesses. previous problems with the law, having Leo Frank trial. He was in charge of the These skills, however, did not help in the been found guilty of petty theft and investigation before the trial began. Hugh Leo Frank trial. Rosser had to contend disorderly conduct and drunkenness. Dorsey understood that it was his role to with mobs in the street, antisemitism He played an instrumental role in the find Mary Phagan’s killer, bring him to directed toward his client and him for trial of Leo Frank. His testimony, spoken trial and convict him. He was aware of defending a Jew, and the fierce political with confidence and consistency, was the the emotion this case had provoked in the ambition of Hugh Dorsey, the prosecutor evidence that led to Frank’s conviction. local citizens and he knew that this case in the case. The defense could not It was unique at that time, that the could propel his career forward. In the prevail against these obstacles and the testimony of an African American was past, Dorsey’s opponents had misjudged riveting testimony of Jim Conley. used to convict a white man in Georgia. his abilities and this turned out to be an After the Leo Frank trial, Jim Conley was advantage for him in the Leo Frank case. sentenced to a chain gang for being an From the start, Hugh Dorsey believed For discussion: accessory in Mary Phagan’s murder. that Leo Frank was guilty of the murder of Mary Phagan. 1. What could Luther Rosser and Reuben Arnold have done to deal with the antisemitism stirred up For discussion: by this case? For discussion: 2. What were the requirements for 1. What made Jim Conley an an individual to serve on a jury unusual witness? 1. What is the job of a solicitor in Georgia at this time? 2. What about this case made general? 3. What is evidence? What kind the jury willing to believe an 2. What is the role of a prosecutor? of evidence did the prosecution African-American over a white 3. Why would it be an advantage for have against Leo Frank? man? Why might they have Hugh Dorsey for his opponents 4. What is a “presumption of overlooked his past? to underestimate him? innocence”? Was Leo Frank 3. Why might Jim Conley have presumed innocent before the testified against Leo Frank? trial began? Give facts to support your answer.

16 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Tom Watson Judge Leonard Roan

Tom Watson was a politician and At the time of the Leo Frank trial, Judge newspaper editor. It was in his second Leonard Roan was 64 years old. He was role that he wielded great influence in in ill health when the trial began. Like the Leo Frank case. The Jeffersonian other jurists of his time, Roan did not was Tom Watson’s newspaper. In it he attend law school. He “apprenticed” at included articles criticizing life in the a law firm in Griffin, Georgia. Leonard big city and the industrialization of Roan had presided over many murder Georgia and used his editorial platform trials in Atlanta. His colleagues to stir up prejudice against minority viewed him as fair, competent and well groups, including Jews and Catholics. prepared. It is said that Leonard Roan His supporters consisted mostly of may have presided over more important Georgians who came from the more criminal cases than any other judge in rural, agricultural parts of the state. Georgia. Judge Roan did not survive to see Leo Frank’s lynching. In the Jeffersonian, Tom Watson stirred up virulent feelings of antisemitism After the guilty verdict, Leo Frank’s amongst his readers. He alleged that lawyers petitioned Judge Leonard Roan Leo Frank was a deviant and that there to rehear the case. Among other issues, was a Jewish conspiracy nationwide that Tom Watson, newspaper editor and politician. they cited the content of the murder was actively trying to free a guilty Leo notes, the attacks on Leo Frank’s Frank by paying huge sums of money for character during the trial, and the his freedom. Tom Watson portrayed the prevailing atmosphere of antisemitism. victim, Mary Phagan, as representative Judge Roan, in his decision, explained of the poor, innocent girls of the South that he was not certain of Leo Frank’s who, for economic reasons, were forced guilt but as a result of the jury’s certainty, to work in factories in the cities to help the guilty verdict had to stand. Almost a support their families. The lynching of Judge Leonard Roan year later Judge Roan was confined to a Leo Frank, according to Tom Watson, facility in Massachusetts as his health was not a lynching at all, but simply the had worsened. Knowing that these noble citizens of Georgia carrying out would be his last comments on the case, the sentence against Leo Frank which Judge Roan requested clemency for Leo was handed down by the court. Frank, recommending that the sentence be commuted to life in prison. For discussion: For discussion: 1. How did life after the Civil War affect the lives of rural 1. What gave Leonard Roan the Georgians? qualifications to become a judge 2. How might these conditions in Georgia? have molded their opinions 2. What experience did Leonard about industrialization? Factory Roan have with criminal cases? owners from the North? How might that experience have Minorities? been helpful? 3. Why did some rural Georgians 3. What was different about this move to Atlanta? trial which might have made it 4. How do you think these more difficult to handle than Georgians felt about sending other criminal cases? their children to work in 4. Do you think cases like this factories? Why? should be decided by a judge or 5. Describe the laws in Georgia at a jury? What are the advantages this time regarding child labor of a judge’s decision? What and compulsory schooling. are the advantages of a jury’s decision?

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 17 Governor Slaton had hoped that Governor John Slaton transferring Leo Frank to Milledgeville

would have protected him from John Marshall Slaton was born in vigilante justice. Meriwether County, Georgia in 1866. After the Civil War his father moved the family to Atlanta. John Slaton For discussion: attended the University of Georgia and became a lawyer in 1887. He served in 1. Why do you think Governor the Georgia House of Representatives Slaton agreed to review Leo and the Georgia Senate. Slaton was Frank’s plea? Explain your appointed acting governor of Georgia in answer. 1911. Slaton served from 1911 to 1912. 2. Why do you think John Slaton A very popular politician, Slaton was commuted Leo Frank’s sentence? elected governor of Georgia on his own 3. Do you think Governor and served from 1913 to 1915. Slaton’s actions were foolish or courageous? Why? Slaton was prepared to run for the 4. What do you think prompted United States Senate in 1915 when he Governor John Slaton the mobs to converge on the was asked to review Leo Frank’s plea governor’s mansion? for the commutation of his sentence. It 5. For what reason might they have was only a few days before the end of on his career. This decision resulted in thought the governor commuted Slaton’s term as governor and he had angry mobs surrounding the governor’s the death sentence of Leo Frank? the option of passing this responsibility mansion, some shouting, “Slaton, King along to his successor. Instead, Slaton of the Jews.” The Slaton’s trip to San carefully reviewed the case and Simeon, the home of William Randolph commuted Frank’s death sentence to life Hearst, came at an opportune time as imprisonment. He correctly predicted it provide an escape from the angry that this act would have a drastic effect Georgia populace.

Alonzo Mann For discussion: Alonzo Mann was 14 years old at the time of Mary Phagan’s murder. He was 1. What made Alonzo Mann keep an office boy at the National Pencil secret what he had seen in Company, making eight dollars a week, the factory on the day of Mary a considerable sum for that time. He Phagan’s murder? worked five and a half days a week, 2. Alonzo Mann said that the including Saturday, the day that Mary lawyers never asked him was killed. He was in the factory on that anything specific and so he fateful day. He had seen Jim Conley, did not have to lie about what alone, carrying the body of Mary happened on the day of the Phagan near the door to the basement murder. Did he do the right of the factory. thing by not speaking out? Explain your answer. When Alonzo returned home that day he 3. Could Alonzo Mann have saved shared with his mother what he had seen. Mary Phagan? Leo Frank? She told him that he should remain silent Explain your answer. and not get involved. Both of Alonzo’s parents told him to remain silent, but if asked directly if he saw anything on Alonzo Mann, witness. the day of the murder, he should tell the truth. No one ever asked.

At the trial, when Alonzo Mann was Day. The courtroom was filled with questioned on the stand, he gave brief people and he wanted very much to answers. He admitted to feeling nervous be able to leave as quickly as possible. and afraid. During his testimony, he The Mann family was surprised to learn never referred to what he had seen in that Leo Frank was convicted of Mary the factory on Confederate Memorial Phagan’s murder.

18 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Newt Lee on the witness stand. William J. Burns, private investigator for the defense. William Smith, Jim Conley’s lawyer. Newt Lee William J. Burns William Smith

Newt Lee was the night watchman for William J. Burns was born in Baltimore, William Smith was paid by a local The National Pencil Company. On the Maryland, ca. 1860. After attending school newspaper to act as the defense attorney afternoon of Saturday, April 26, 1913, in Columbus, Ohio, he became a Secret for Jim Conley. He was considered a he arrived at the factory at 4 p.m., two Service agent. In that role he developed a champion of equal rights for African hours early for his regular shift. He was reputation for being thorough and having Americans. It was his job to prepare Jim told by Leo Frank to leave and return at good instincts. These traits helped him Conley for questioning in the trial of Leo his regular time, 6 p.m. After Newt Lee’s create the successful William J. Burns Frank. Throughout the trial, William return, Leo Frank left the factory. International Detective Agency. He had Smith believed in the innocence of his offices all over the United States and in client. It was around 3 a.m. on the morning of Montreal, London, Paris and Brussels. He April 27th when Newt Lee went down to often sought publicity and worked many After Jim Conley was convicted of being the basement of the factory to use the high profile cases, including the Leo an accessory in the murder of Mary bathroom earmarked for black workers. Frank case. Phagan, William Smith no longer was On his rounds, he noticed a body which responsible for defending Jim Conley. he could not identify. He immediately Burns offered his services to Leo Frank’s From that time forward, he investigated called the police who arrived at the defense team in 1913. It was in 1914, the circumstances of the murder, even factory a short while later. Newt Lee was however, that Burns returned to Georgia visiting the scene of the crime. By the extremely distraught and agitated about in an effort to solve the crime and prove end of 1914, he concluded that various his discovery. This behavior, combined Leo Frank’s innocence. An important statements about the murder, by Jim with the murder notes found near the finding of his was the jailhouse letters Conley, could not have been true. body, which referred to “a long tall written by Jim Conley to a female prisoner. black negro”, led to Newt Lee’s arrest. The language Conley used in the letters His public statements regarding his Although he was never charged in the was remarkably similar to the language beliefs about the case led to the demise crime, Newt Lee was held for months in which had been used in the murder notes. of his law practice and necessitated his jail as a suspect in the murder. Burns also discovered two witnesses, the departure from Atlanta. prisoner and a minister, who both declared that they had heard Conley admit to For discussion: Mary Phagan’s murder. Although Burns For discussion: believed he had proved Frank’s innocence 1. What was strange about Newt and good character, his findings did not 1. What was considered Lee’s arrival at the factory on change the judicial outcome of the case remarkable about Jim Conley’s April 26th? or save Leo Frank’s life. testimony in the Leo Frank trial? 2. How might this be construed as What role might William Smith suspicious? have played in the testimony of 3. What about Newt Lee’s story and For discussion: Jim Conley? behavior made the police suspect 2. Why would William Smith have him of having something to do 1. How do you think Georgians wanted to defend Jim Conley? with the murder? might have reacted to someone 3. In your opinion, why was 4. Why was Newt Lee held in like William Burns? Why? proving Leo Frank’s innocence jail for a long period of time? 2. Was the discovery of the notes so important to William Smith? According to present day law, is and witnesses important in light of this acceptable? the fact that it did not change the outcome? Explain your answer.

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 19 Atlanta Constitution, August 16, 1913.

Deathbed statement of William Smith avowing the innocence of Leo M. Frank, 1949

20 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited The Events of the Case

The Crime and the Arrest

Saturday, April 26, 1913, was Confederate tried to hide her body in the basement Memorial Day. At approximately 11:50 of the pencil factory. The next day, Activities that morning, Mary Phagan took a after deliberating only five minutes, streetcar from her home in Bellwood the Grand Jury indicted Leo Frank for 1. Create a timeline of the events to the pencil company. She worked on the murder of Mary Phagan. Frank which are covered in this the second floor of the building in the was transferred from the police station overview, from the morning of metal room attaching metal tips to hold to the Fulton County Jail. Newt Lee the murder, to the discovery of erasers on the pencils. She was among remained in jail under suspicion as a new evidence. one hundred or so other young girls and material witness. 2. Do some research about the women employed at the factory. Unable murder notes. What text did to work for several days earlier that week Days after Frank’s indictment, a tip they contain? What unusual because the shipment of metal was late caused police to return their attention references were made in these in arriving, Mary wanted to stop by the to another man who had come under notes? From where are these factory on her way to the Confederate suspicion earlier, Jim Conley, the pencil references derived? Could Memorial Day parade in order to pick company’s black janitor. When initially Leo Frank have made these up her pay from the superintendent, questioned and suspected of writing references? Explain. Leo Frank. the “murder notes” found near the body, Conley had claimed he could not In the early morning hours of Sunday, read or write. That claim was disputed April 27, the body of Mary Phagan was by Frank, who knew that Conley was discovered by night watchman Newt lying and was in fact literate. Under Lee in the basement of the National more intense questioning by police, Pencil Company. Lee notified the police Conley admitted that he could read and and led them into the pencil factory’s write. Comparisons of his signature to basement. They observed a young girl’s the murder notes confirmed that Conley body so covered with soot that they at had penned them. first had trouble ascertaining that the victim was white. Two handwritten notes lay near the body and referred to “a long tall black negro.” Night watchman Lee, who fit the description, was arrested for the crime.

Police officers drove Leo Frank from his house to the funeral home to identify the body and then to the scene of the crime. Over the next several days, police questioned two factory employees said to have been enamored with Mary. By Tuesday, April 29, both men had been cleared. Police then turned their attention to Leo Frank, the last man to admit seeing Mary alive. Frank was arrested later that day and held in a cell at the police station.

On May 23, the Grand Jury convened to decide whether to charge Leo Frank with murder. Fulton County Solicitor General Hugh Manson Dorsey presented little physical evidence and relied solely on the testimony of a few key witnesses to buttress his case. He contended that Frank had raped and murdered Mary Phagan and had then Atlanta Constitution, July 27, 1913.

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 23 The Crime and the Arrest Questions

1. On what day did the events of the case begin?

What holiday was commemorated on that day?

What kinds of emotions may have been stirred among the population on that particular day?

2. Why was Mary coming to the factory on a Saturday?

Would there have been many other girls at the factory on that day?

3. What was found during the early morning hours of Sunday, April 27, 1913?

Who made the grisly discovery?

What did police see when led to the crime scene?

Why was Newt Lee arrested at that time?

4. Who did police identify as other possible suspects right after the murder?

Why did these individuals arouse suspicion?

5. When the case came to the Grand Jury, what evidence was proffered by Hugh Dorsey, the Fulton County Solicitor General?

What did Dorsey allege had happened at the factory the day of the murder?

Based on the evidence, what decision was made by the Grand Jury?

How long did it take the Grand Jury to make this decision?

What might that indicate?

6. After Leo Frank was indicted, what information became available to the police?

Who was the new suspect?

Why was this new information important to the case?

What did handwriting analysis confirm?

7. If you were a member of the Grand Jury, what would you have wanted to know about the case before you would have made a decision about whether or not to indict Leo Frank?

24 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited The Trial

On July 28, 1913, a hot Atlanta morning, he saw the crime, Frank explained intimidated by the rising and heated the trial of Leo Frank began in a his nervousness when the police first public outcry for Frank’s conviction, courtroom crowded with spectators. arrived at his home, “Gentlemen, I was the defense requested a mistrial. The The presiding judge was Leonard Roan. nervous. I was completely unstrung. motion was denied. Fearing that an Hugh Dorsey was the prosecuting Imagine yourself called from a sound acquittal would endanger the safety of attorney. Frank’s legal team was led slumber in the early hours of the Frank and his attorneys, Judge Roan by Luther Rosser and co-counsel morning…To see that little girl on brokered a deal in which neither the Reuben Arnold. By early afternoon, the dawn of womanhood so cruelly defendant nor his lawyers would be jury selection had been completed murdered…it was a scene that would present in the courtroom when the and the confrontation between the have melted stone.” verdict was read. Frank and his wife, prosecution and the defense—one that Lucille, waited together in his cell. would occupy the all-male white jury, In its closing statements, the defense the entire city of Atlanta and, ultimately, further exposed the racial dimensions of On August 25, it took the jury an the nation—commenced. the case by asserting that Frank would hour and forty-five minutes to reach a never have been prosecuted had he not decision. Frank was convicted of murder. The prosecution’s theory was that been a Jew, and by portraying Conley As the guilty verdict was announced, the Conley’s last affidavit was true: Frank as a drunk and a liar. The prosecution crowd outside the courtroom erupted was the murderer, and the murder charged Frank with murdering Mary with shouts of celebration. One day notes had been dictated by Frank in an Phagan to keep her from accusing him following the conviction, Judge Roan effort to pin the crime on Newt Lee. To of rape. sentenced Frank to death by hanging. prove this, Dorsey planned to present The sentence was scheduled to be a timeline for the murder, to establish The longer the trial wore on, the carried out on October 10, 1913. that Frank had often used Conley in more public sentiment turned against concealing his pursuit of young women Frank. Charging that the jurors were in his employ, and especially, to show that Frank intended to have his way with Mary Phagan in the metal room of the factory.

The defense’s theory was that Conley was the murderer. The team of Rosser and Arnold hoped to prove that Frank’s schedule on the day of the murder made it impossible for him to have committed the crime. They expected to show that there was no preexisting relationship between their client and the murder victim and to challenge Solicitor Dorsey’s portrayal of Frank as a sexual deviant. Most importantly, the defense sought to discredit Jim Conley.

However, voicing general public opinion regarding Conley’s affidavit, the Atlanta newspaper the Georgian editorialized, “Many people are arguing to themselves that the negro, no matter how hard he tried or how generously he was coached, still never could have framed up a story like the one he told unless there was some foundation in fact.”

Three weeks into the trial, Frank took the stand in his own defense. Ending his testimony with a description of how Atlanta Constitution, August 19, 1913.

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 25 The Trial Activities

1. Create an editorial cartoon in which you illustrate the guilt or innocence of Leo Frank. 2. Write an editorial in which you praise or criticize the prosecution or defense in this case. 3. Write an essay in which you explain why Leo Frank was not a sympathetic character to the white Christian Southerners in Georgia. Consider issues such as the era of Reconstruction, views of the New South, racial and religious prejudices, class tensions, regional tensions, and child labor.

Questions

1. Describe the weather conditions when the trial began. How might the weather have contributed to the intense emotions surrounding this case?

2. Describe the jury which was chosen on July 28, 1913. Could such a jury have been chosen for a case tried in today’s courts?

3. What information in the last written statement of Jim Conley was the basis for the prosecutor’s case? Who was Jim Conley? Why did people believe Jim Conley would have known the details of the murder? What two important assertions had Conley made in his affidavit? What motive did the prosecution put forth for the murder?

4. What theory was the basis for the case of the defense? What were three things the defense hoped to prove in their case?

5. In its efforts to reflect the views of the local populace, how did the newspaper, the Georgian, appraise Jim Conley’s affidavit? How did this editorial opinion reflect the prejudices of the local population?

6. Why do you think Leo Frank took the stand in his own defense? What might the jury have thought if he chose not to testify? What impression did Leo Frank hope to leave with the jury? Do you think Leo Frank’s attorneys made a positive choice in having Leo Frank testify in his own defense?

7. How did the defense use the race card in their closing arguments? To what stereotypes and prejudices did the defense attorneys refer? Do you think these references were helpful to their case? Explain.

8. In closing arguments, how did the prosecutor explain Leo Frank’s motive for the murder? How did this reflect local attitudes about child labor? How did this reflect local attitudes about Southerners protecting their women?

9. In order to protect the safety of Leo Frank and his defense team, what deal was struck between Judge Roan and the defense?

10. How long did it take for the jury to reach a verdict? What might this signify? What decision did the jury reach? What was the reaction of the crowd outside the courtroom? What sentence did Judge Roan hand down the next day?

26 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited The Appeals

Following the guilty verdict, Frank’s does not become due process of law by attorneys submitted an Amended securing the assent of a terrorized jury.” For research and Motion for a New Trial, arguing that Holmes continued, “I very seriously public opinion had intimidated the doubt if the petitioner… has had due discussion: jurors and that testimony attacking process of law… because of the trial Frank’s character should have been taking place in the presence of a hostile 1. What changes in “due process inadmissible. Judge Roan denied the demonstration and seemingly dangerous law” resulted from this case? motion, stating, “I am not certain of crowd, thought by the presiding Judge 2. In this case, the press stirred up this man’s guilt…But I don’t have to be to be ready for violence unless a verdict and manipulated public opinion. convinced. The jury was convinced.” of guilty was rendered.” What are some of the results of the power of the press in the Leo When a subsequent direct defense In 1923, Holmes restated that argument Frank case? appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court in the case of five African Americans was denied, several well-known national in Arkansas who “…were hurried to Jewish leaders became more proactive conviction under the pressure of a mob, in Frank’s defense. They believed that without any regard for their rights, and an open campaign to present his case to without according to them due process the public was necessary to save him. of law.” Holmes’ opinion is now accepted By February 1914, even Adolph Ochs, legal precedent. publisher of the New York Times, who had long been known for keeping his paper out of “Jewish issues,” brought the power of his paper to Frank’s defense. Brief and Argument The local Atlanta press began moving for Plaintiff in Error towards Frank’s defense when the presented to the Atlanta Journal revealed that prosecutor Georgia Supreme Court, Hugh Dorsey had suppressed medical October term 1913. evidence vital to disproving the timeline of the crime. Unfortunately for Frank, the Journal’s call for the support of Frank stirred the wrath of Tom Watson, a former Populist politician and journalist, who wrote in his Jeffersonian newspaper, “If Frank’s rich connections keep on lying about this case, SOMETHING BAD WILL HAPPEN.”

In April 1915, the defense team was discouraged by successive defeats in the Georgia courts, yet encouraged by national support. The team, now led by Louis Marshall, made a final effort in an appeal to the United States Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus, a legal instrument used to bring someone who has been imprisoned before the court for a decision on whether that detention is lawful. The Court agreed to hear the case, and on April 19, Frank’s appeal was denied by a 7-2 vote. At this point, Frank had spent nearly two years in jail. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice Charles Evans Hughes dissented. Holmes wrote, “Mob law

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 27 The Remaining Option

With no avenues left in the courts, the acknowledged that he would incur the defense had but one remaining option: wrath of the people, found in favor of For discussion: to ask the Pardons and Paroles Board Frank. Slaton commuted Leo Frank’s of the Georgia Prison Commission to death sentence to life in prison. 1. Governor John Slaton was the recommend clemency for Frank to Fearing for Frank’s safety, Slaton had law partner of Luther Rosser. departing Georgia Governor John M. Frank transferred to the state prison Was this a conflict of interest? Slaton. After listening to presentations farm in Milledgeville before publicly Explain your answer. both for and against Frank, the announcing his decision. 2. Why was Governor John Slaton’s Commission recommended that the commutation of Leo Frank’s death sentence stand. Tom Watson’s rhetoric urged the sentence hailed as heroic by lynchings of both Frank and Slaton: some and ridiculed as traitorous On June 12, 1915, several days after “Our grand old Empire State HAS BEEN by others? receiving the recommendation of the RAPED! ... Jew money has debased us, 3. How did the defense’s failure to Prison Commission, the final hearing on bought us, and sold us – and laughs highlight key evidence affect the the case was held before the governor. at us…Hereafter let no man reproach outcome of Leo Frank’s trial? Following newly presented evidence the South with Lynch law…let him say incriminating Jim Conley, Slaton heard whether lynch law is not better than no from former governor Joseph Brown, law at all.” who expressed the sentiments of the vast majority of Georgians when he Once beloved, Governor Slaton became warned, “Now in all frankness, if your the first governor in history to call out Excellency wishes to ensure lynch law the National Guard to protect himself, in Georgia, if you wish to hopelessly as more than 4,000 citizens hung him in weaken trial by jury in Georgia, you effigy outside the governor’s mansion. can strike this dangerous blow at our institutions and our civilization by retrying this case…” Jeffersonian, April 9, 1914. At the hearing, evidence pertaining to the feces that were found on the morning of the murder at the bottom of the elevator shaft was presented. In Conley’s earlier affidavit, he testified that he had defecated at the bottom of the shaft on Saturday morning. Early Sunday morning when the first officers arrived at the factory, they found the excrement intact. When the detectives arrived, they ran the elevator down to the basement smashing the feces.

If, as Conley had testified, he and Frank had transported the body Saturday afternoon via the elevator, the excrement would have already been destroyed. This key inconsistency in Conley’s testimony was never emphasized by Frank’s defense team during the trial.

Slaton poured over more than 10,000 pages of documents and carefully examined the new evidence. In a twenty- nine page document, the governor set forth the troublesome points, affirmed the strength of the new evidence,

28 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited The State Prison Farm, Milledgeville, Georgia, and Lynching

Soon after Frank was spirited away to Leo Frank was hanged at 7:05 a.m. the state prison farm at Milledgeville, Within ninety minutes, a crowd of 1,000 a small group of leading citizens from onlookers had gathered: men, women, Mary’s former hometown near Marietta children, and even mothers carrying in Cobb County met to formulate a plan their babies. Souvenir seekers cut pieces to deliver the justice they felt had been from the sleeves of Frank’s nightshirt denied Mary Phagan and the State of and from the rope that bound his feet. Georgia. Ironically, Judge Newt Morris, the man The group included Eugene Herbert who had kicked the table out from under Clay, solicitor general of the Blue Frank’s feet at the lynching and whose Ridge Circuit; John Tucker Dorsey, involvement would remain a secret state legislator and chairman of the outside Marietta for more than eighty House Penitentiary Committee; Joseph years, was credited with bringing calm M. Brown, ex-governor of the State to the scene as the undertaker took the of Georgia; Bolan Glover Brumby, body away. businessman; Newton Augustus Morris, judge; and Fred Morris, Confederate veteran and attorney.

Members of the lynch party were all politically well-connected, financially secure, and socially prominent.

On August 17, 1915, these men put into motion a highly organized plan. They stormed the state prison with guns at their sides, and meeting no resistance from the prison staff, drove Frank four hours to a large oak tree at Frey’s Gin, two miles from Marietta. They granted Frank’s only requests: that he be allowed to write a note to his wife, that they return his wedding ring to her, and that they cover his lower body before hanging him, as he was wearing nothing but a nightshirt. Male Building, State Prison Farm, Milledgeville, GA

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 29 The Conspiracy: The Abduction and Lynching of Leo Frank Questions for discussion

1. What sentence had Judge Roan handed down to Leo Frank in the summer of 1913?

2. How had the Georgia Courts of Appeal responded to Leo Frank’s attorneys’ requests to have the guilty verdict overturned?

3. How did the United States Supreme Court respond to these same requests?

What was the argument of the two dissenting justices?

How did that argument get restated in 1923?

What does it mean that Justice Holmes’ dissenting argument is now legal precedent?

4. What decision was made by Governor John M. Slaton regarding clemency for Leo Frank?

On what did Governor Slaton base his decision?

How did Governor Slaton view his role?

Why did Leo Frank’s attorneys choose to bring their request to Governor Slaton rather than the governor who was about to take office?

Why did some people perceive Governor Slaton’s involvement as a conflict of interest?

What risk was Governor Slaton taking by making such a decision?

Why did Governor Slaton believe that he was doing the right thing?

5. Why did some of Marietta’s most prominent citizens believe they were justified in lynching Leo Frank?

6. Describe some of the members of the lynch mob.

Does a group such as this one conform to your view of lynch mobs? Explain.

7. With what resistance was the mob met as they carried out their own form of what they viewed as justice?

What does this tell you about the people in the lynch mob?

What does this tell you about the prison staff and others whom they encountered on the way to Frey’s Gin?

8. What were the three requests made by Leo Frank prior to his lynching?

Do you find these requests unusual? Why or why not?

What might you have expected that he would request?

9. Describe the crowd which gathered to observe the lynching.

Do you find the members of the crowd to be unusual? Why?

10. Who was the individual who eventually was able to stop those who were vandalizing the scene and the body after the lynching?

11. Why is it strange that he was the person responsible for bringing order to the chaotic scene?

30 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited The Aftermath

The Aftermath

Atlanta newspapers and those throughout Georgia condemned the lynching. The national press lamented Frank’s fate, but in doing so also denounced Georgia and the entire South. The Chicago Tribune captured the sentiment of much of the country by concluding that, “The South is a region of illiteracy, blatant self- righteousness, cruelty and violence. Until it is improved by the infusion of better blood and better ideas it will remain a reproach and a danger to the American republic.” Postcard depicting the newly reorganized Knights of the Ku Klux Klan at Stone Mountain Park, Atlanta, Georgia, 1915 As coverage in mainstream papers in Atlanta and throughout the nation the scenes to quell any attempts at an Jewish community since the first moved on to other stories, Tom Watson’s investigation. In a closed door session, the Jews settled in the city in 1845. Fear Jeffersonian stepped up its inflammatory prison commission absolved Milledgeville permeated the community. Discussion of rhetoric about Frank, Slaton, local and prison officials of any culpability. Seven the case became taboo and Jews stepped national Jewish leaders and Jews in general. members of the lynching party found seats out of the limelight of public office and On the front page of the September 2, on the coroner’s inquest that convened public affairs. For many, it was not until 1915 edition of the Jeffersonian, Watson one week after the hanging to further 1958, encouraged by the outpouring of called for a revival of the Ku Klux Klan, investigate the crime. support from the general populace in a hooded fraternity of horsemen that had the wake of the bombing of The Temple, disbanded in 1869 and whose midnight No one was ever connected to or charged Atlanta’s oldest Jewish congregation, rides, crossburnings, and ferocious with the murder of Leo Frank. that Jews once again began to feel a part attacks against African Americans had of the community. brought terror across the South. The Frank trial sensationalized the perils of factory life for women and children and In 1982, the Frank case was back in Watson’s call was answered on November advanced antisemitic sentiment among the the news with a startling revelation. A 13, 1915, at the top of Stone Mountain working poor. Both courtroom testimony Nashville newspaper, the Tennessean, outside of Atlanta. On a site that could and the pages of the Jeffersonian contained published a story quoting eighty-three be seen for miles, a small group of men stereotypes about Jews. Vitriolic attacks year-old Alonzo Mann, Frank’s former lit a giant pitch-and-kerosene soaked on the power of Jewish money, later office boy, as having seen Jim Conley wooden cross, signaling the return of espoused in the radio sermons of Father carrying the body of Mary Phagan into the organization that had first been Charles Edward Coughlin and in the the lobby of the National Pencil Company. established by Confederate veterans to antisemitic writings of Henry Ford in his Mann, who was fourteen at the time, protect “the southern way of life” in the Dearborn Independent, were already being said Conley threatened to kill him if he aftermath of the Civil War. expressed in Atlanta in 1913. revealed what he saw. Terrified, Mann had kept the secret for sixty-nine years. Some national Jewish community leaders Similarly, the trial exacerbated preexisting took on the Frank case as a rallying cry. racial prejudices. The defense hoped that The publication of this new information The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai the jury would concur with its theory encouraged members of Atlanta’s Jewish B’rith, founded in Chicago in 1913 to “… that, “…every southern man knows that community to petition for a posthumous stop, by appeals to reason and conscience, Negroes can make up gruesome stories.” pardon for Frank. Attorneys Charles and if necessary, by appeals to law, the The prosecution played upon the notion Wittenstein of the Anti-Defamation defamation of the Jewish people,” was that any black man who could withstand League and Dale Schwartz initiated the galvanized by the injustice it felt had been being grilled in court by a white attorney process, which finally ended in a diluted perpetrated, and grew in both membership without changing his story must surely be victory in 1986. The Board of Pardons and significance. telling the truth. These prejudices, biases and Paroles did not address the question and misconceptions were at the core of the of guilt or innocence; rather, a pardon An eerie silence regarding Leo Frank racial divide throughout the South. was issued based on the State’s failure settled over Marietta. Members of the to protect Frank from the hands of his lynching party were temporarily sent out The lynching of Leo Frank undermined lynchers. of town; organizers worked quietly behind the stability and security felt by Atlanta’s

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 33 Atlanta and the Leo Frank Case Questions

1. What view of the South was drawn from the national press coverage of the Leo Frank Case?

2. How did Tom Watson continue to inflame racial and religious prejudices in Atlanta in the aftermath of the case?

3. How did the national Jewish community respond to such attacks on their co-religionists?

4. Who were Father Coughlin and Henry Ford?

How did they each become well known?

What kinds of ideas did they espouse?

Do some research to find out how they disseminated their ideas to the public.

5. How did this case affect the Jewish community in Atlanta?

What happened to some store owners in Marietta during the time of the trial?

What did some Jewish fathers do at the time of the trial and lynching to protect their wives and children?

Why did Jewish families who stayed in Atlanta often refuse to talk about the Leo Frank case?

At what point did Jews in Atlanta begin to feel as if they were part of the community again?

6. What happened in 1982 to bring the details of this case back into the journalistic limelight?

Summarize the story published in 1982 in the Tennessean.

How did Atlanta’s Jewish community respond to this news?

What was the outcome of their efforts? Activities

1. Interview Atlantans and ask them about any experiences they may have had with racial and religious prejudice.

How did they respond?

Did they look for support from others?

Were they successful?

Do they feel that Atlanta is different today? Explain.

2. What was the purpose of applying for a posthumous pardon for Leo Frank? Write an editorial in which you support or oppose the efforts to obtain such a pardon. Explain your position.

3. Write an essay in which you explain the role that Tom Watson played in the Leo Frank case.

4. Do some research to find out about other contributions Tom Watson made to the state and people of Georgia.

5. Do you think it is right to have Tom Watson’s statue on display in front of the Georgia State Capitol? Explain your answer.

34 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Profiles of the Protagonists after the Case

years later, in 1947, he was arrested Jim Conley for drunkenness. Jim Conley died in 1962. Between the end of the trial During the Leo Frank trial, it was the and Conley’s death, no records of any testimony of the janitor, Jim Conley, comments about the case or the murder which led to the conviction of Leo by Conley were ever disclosed. Frank. After the trial, he was sentenced to one year on a chain gang for his role as an accessory to the murder, For discussion: specifically for carrying Mary’s body to the basement. 1. Compare and contrast the character of Jim Conley as a After his release from the chain gang, witness in the Leo Frank trial little is known about the life of Conley, and as a scofflaw in the years aside from his ongoing prison record. following the trial. During a robbery attempt in 1919, 2. How would you describe the Conley was shot and arrested. In this “real” Jim Conley? case, he was sentenced to serve in the state penitentiary for twenty years. Conley’s brushes with the law continued Jim Conley in a 1913 photograph. upon his release from prison. He was arrested for gambling in 1941. Just six

at half staff. His eulogy in the Atlanta Governor John Slaton Constitution reflected on the injustice

of John Slaton having to relinquish his After his commutation of Leo Frank’s political career to do what he believed sentence, from death by hanging to life was right. imprisonment, John Slaton and his wife headed to California. His commutation resulted in the end of his political career. For discussion: After a number of years, he returned to Atlanta and went back into the practice 1. How did John Slaton’s training of law. He was honored by the Georgia as an attorney contribute to the Bar Association in 1928 by being elected decisions he made as governor? unanimously as its president. 2. How did his legal colleagues treat Governor Slaton upon his return Unlike Jim Conley, records exist of to Atlanta? Governor Slaton’s retrospective view of 3. Did Governor Slaton’s actions the trial of Leo Frank. In an interview in change the outcome of the case? 1953, Slaton revealed that Judge Roan 4. Were his actions worth the price had told him that if Hugh Dorsey had not Governor John Slaton he had to pay? Explain your been the prosecutor, and if the prosecutor answer. who held office before him had still been in office at the time of the case, he would have determined that there was come to light since the trial proved that not enough evidence to bring Leo Frank Leo Frank was innocent of the murder of to trial. Slaton also admitted that he had Mary Phagan. been told that Jim Conley’s lawyers had believed that he, Conley, was guilty of When Governor John Slaton died in Mary Phagan’s murder. Governor Slaton 1955, he was honored by the State of asserted that information which had Georgia, which ordered flags to be flown

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 35 Hugh Dorsey For discussion: Hugh Dorsey’s legal success in the prosecution of Leo Frank afforded him 1. Why was Hugh Dorsey viewed by great notoriety and public affection. Georgians as a hero? He was viewed by the populace as a 2. Explain how the Leo Frank trial local hero. The publicity and good helped Hugh Dorsey attain his will provided the means for Dorsey political goals. to recognize his political ambitions. By 1916 the public was clamoring for Dorsey to enter the race for Georgia governor. Dorsey won the office by an overwhelming majority and used this mandate to keep the office until 1921.

Shortly before he left the governor’s office, Dorsey entered a primary to become a United States Senator from Georgia. Ironically, he was defeated for Hugh Dorsey, the prosecutor. that position by Tom Watson. Dorsey re- entered political life in later years, serving as Judge of Atlanta’s City Court and later as Judge of Fulton County Superior Court. Hugh Dorsey died in 1949.

was changing. His criticisms were now Tom Watson welcomed by Georgians. Watson was

hopeful that this change in attitudes Tom Watson used his political and would help him attain political office. He editorial influence to affect the outcome entered the presidential primary race in of the Leo Frank case. His words stirred 1920 and won the popular vote but could up the local population. His influence not control the votes of the delegates could also been seen in the political to the national convention where the sphere. Tom Watson supported the nomination went to A. Mitchell Palmer. candidacy of Hugh Dorsey in 1916, as well Undeterred, Watson next entered the as the candidacies of a number of other race for the U.S. Senate and this time individuals. All of them were victorious. was victorious. Tom Watson’s political During the First World War, Watson had career ended abruptly, shortly after he used his paper, the Jeffersonian, to attack took office, with his death on September the policies of President Woodrow Wilson 26, 1922. At his funeral, it is reported and his decision to enter the war. For a that an eight foot cross of flowers, sent time, Watson had to suspend printing of by the Ku Klux Klan, was on display. the paper when the federal government determined that articles printed in the Jeffersonian had violated the Tom Watson, newspaper editor and politician. Espionage Act. For discussion:

In 1918 Watson attempted to achieve his 1. How did Tom Watson use personal political aspirations. He ran for the press to influence public Congress in that year but went down to opinion? defeat by a small number of votes. His 2. Discuss World War I and how opponent was Carl Vinson, who had Watson’s political critiques supported Wilson and the participation and efforts reflect that time in of the United States in the war. State history. officials rejected Watson’s pleas for a 3. What is the Ku Klux Klan? Why review of the election results. would they have sent a floral arrangement to the funeral of Watson continued to criticize the Tom Watson? administration in Washington. By war’s end, the tide of public opinion in Georgia

36 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited known, the public was so outraged that William Smith he had to close down his legal practice

and move his family out of Atlanta. When Leo Frank’s attorneys filed their motion for a new trial in April 1914, At the age of 79, on the verge of death, William Smith submitted an affidavit William Smith wrote and signed the in support of the motion. In his affidavit, following statement: “I believe in the he declared that he had overheard a innocence and good character of Leo conversation between Hugh Dorsey and M. Frank.” the doctor who had examined the hair found in the metal room of the National Pencil Company. The doctor told Hugh For discussion: Dorsey that the hair did not belong to Mary Phagan. This information was 1. Why, by 1914, might William never disclosed at the trial. Smith have been willing to come forward with the information Then, for three months in 1914 William about the hair found near the Smith conducted his own detailed metal room? investigation of the murder, visiting 2. Why do you think William Smith William Smith, Jim Conley’s lawyer. the scene of the crime and analyzing was willing to take the risk of the contents of the notes found near making his beliefs public? Mary Phagan’s body. William Smith 3. Why do people put a great concluded that Leo Frank could not deal of credence into deathbed have committed the crime. Based on statements? How do you respond his investigation, he concluded that Jim to the statement of William Conley was, in fact, the real murderer. Smith? When William Smith made his beliefs

William J. Burns For discussion: Through his work on the Leo Frank Case as well as other high profile cases, 1. How did his work on the Leo William J. Burns developed a reputation Frank case contribute to the throughout the country. Burns often career of William J. Burns? sought publicity for his work and was 2. Do you think William Burns was written about in newspapers and gossip helped or hurt by the publicity columns. He wrote stories about the he sought? Explain your answer. cases on which he worked and had them published in detective magazines.

Burns was appointed as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on August 22, 1921. He had both the qualifications and public stature for this position. His friendship with President Warren Harding’s Attorney General was also a factor in his selection for this appointment. During the three year tenure of William Burns as head William J. Burns, private investigator for the defense. of the agency, the staff of the FBI was reduced by almost half. Burns resigned from his position at the agency in 1924 at the request of the new Attorney General, Harlan Fiske Stone, because After his departure from the FBI, William of his involvement in the Teapot Dome Burns retired in Sarasota, Florida. He Scandal, an illegal operation in which continued to write stories about his past federal oil reserve lands were leased to exploits and detective work. He died in private businesses. Sarasota in April of 1932.

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 37

Two Approaches to Teaching thease C

The Ballad of Leo Frank

Adapted from Us and Them, published by Teaching Tolerance, A project of the Southern Poverty Law Center

Early on the Sunday morning of April As questioning continued, the police sex life and how his exploits led to the 27, 1913, the night watchman at the began to focus on Leo Frank and Jim murder of Mary Phagan. His testimony National Pencil Company discovered Conley. A witness had reported seeing was consistent and compelling and no the soot covered body of a teenage girl Conley laundering a bloody shirt matter how hard they tried, the defense in the basement coal bin. Her body was shortly after the murder, but the police team could not get Conley’s accounts so blackened by coal that the police did never tested Conley’s shirt. And then to erode. Regarding Frank’s character, not at first identify her as white. Prior the focus narrowed to Leo Frank. An they called mostly Northern and in to her murder, Mary Phagan worked explanation for this focus on Frank some cases, Jewish, witnesses to attest at the factory for 10 hours a day. For might be evident in a statement by to Frank’s good name. These witnesses 12 cents an hour she attached erasers the minister of Mary Phagan’s Baptist were not looked upon favorably by to pencils. She worked at a time when church. He commented, “This one old the southern jury. At the end of the factory working conditions were Negro would be poor atonement for the life trial, Leo Frank took the stand in his dangerous and crime was running of this innocent girl ”. Leo Frank would own defense. Some of the local press rampant in America’s growing cities. be viewed as a more worthy subject to found his statements convincing and Resentment grew on the part of working be found guilty of the murder. supported a verdict of not guilty. Hugh families, who had been uprooted from Dorsey used his final argument to Georgia’s farms. Economic hardships At pre-trial hearings, no one create a different outcome. forced many families to send women contradicted Leo Frank’s account of and children to work. Many factory his actions on the day of the murder. In his closing argument on Saturday, owners and supervisors were outsiders, But, the prosecution brought forth August 23rd, Dorsey attempted to show typically from the North. Leo Frank, witness after witness to cast doubt on his open mindedness by praising well Mary’s boss at the National Pencil Leo Frank’s good character. Frank known Jews. But then he listed a litany Company, was both a Yankee and a Jew. was accused of being a sexual deviant of Jewish criminals. He said that the Northerners and Jews were perceived and even a Catholic. Also before the Jews, “rise to the heights of the sublime, as engaged in economically exploiting trial, the prosecution released three but they also sink to the lowest depths of white southern Protestants. sworn statements by Jim Conley. Each degradation ”. Dorsey’s speech went on of Conley’s stories was different from for hours. As it got later and later and The police quickly arrested several the others. By the third statement, amidst concerns about violence on the suspects in the murder: Newt Lee, the however, Conley settled in on a story street, Judge Roan halted Dorsey in African American nightwatchman, which described Leo Frank requesting mid-argument and scheduled court to Jim Conley, a sweeper at the factory, his help with a girl who had fallen in resume on Monday morning. On August also African American, and Leo the workroom. Conley stated that the 25th, 1914, Dorsey spent an additional Frank, the white, Jewish factory girl was dead and that Frank helped three hours on his closing argument, superintendent. Police said that him carry the body to the basement of ending with the statement that the jury they had found bloodstains and hair the factory using the elevator. Conley must find Leo Frank “guilty!” One hour near Frank’s office. As questioning accompanied Dorsey to the factory to and forty five minutes later the jury of these three suspects proceeded, reenact the events he had recounted. returned with just such a verdict. this sensational murder story evoked Hugh Dorsey was able to convince the gossip and mistruths, false claims and Grand Jury to indict Leo Frank. The next day, Judge Roan ordered Leo sensationalism in the press. Frank to hang for his crime. Crowds The trial of Leo Frank began on July celebrated in the streets of Atlanta. A conviction in this case was important 28, 1913 and lasted four weeks. The Press around the country called for a to both the police and Atlanta’s summer weather was exceedingly retrial and Frank’s defense team began prosecuting attorney, Hugh Dorsey. hot and tensions grew both in the a series of appeals, all of which would Dorsey was politically ambitious and courtroom and among the crowds prove unsuccessful. had recently lost two important cases. who had gathered outside to follow This was an opportunity for him to the proceedings. The case against Leo Tom Watson, in his two journals, redeem himself. The police needed to Frank was dependent primarily on Watson’s Magazine and the Jeffersonian, restore public trust after the Atlanta the testimony of Jim Conley. Conley used this case to rile up intense feelings Race Riot of 1906 and accusations of arrived in court dressed in a new suit, of antisemitism, racism and class police brutality and horrible prison clean shaven and with a fresh haircut. rivalries. The majority of Atlanta’s conditions. He told numerous stories of Frank’s citizens felt the verdict was justified.

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 41 Watson asserted that it was Jewish money which was being used to try to Discussion Questions: The Ballad of Leo Frank override the justice system. Watson even intimated that if Frank’s sentence were 1. What conditions contributed to a general mood of intolerance toward Jews commuted, citizens might be driven to in Atlanta at the time of Leo Frank’s arrest? (Drought and the boll weevil lynch him to carry out the sentence. had crippled Georgia’s cotton crop, causing depressed economic conditions . Low wages and the high cost of living in the city made it necessary for Pressure mounted, however, for women and children to work long hours in bad conditions in factories . Many Governor John Slaton to commute families in Atlanta lived in overcrowded and unsanitary slum apartments . Frank’s death sentence. Jim Conley’s Jews were viewed as wealthy outsiders who controlled the economy ). lawyer announced that his client was, 2. How did personal ambitions influence the way the prosecuting attorney in fact, the murderer. Letters from and the Atlanta Police Department handled the murder of Mary Phagan? governors demanding commutation (District Attorney Hugh Dorsey had recently lost two murder cases . He arrived from around the country. Six wanted to use his position as District Attorney as a stepping stone to a state legislatures passed resolutions national political career . Convicting a wealthy Jewish man could win him on behalf of Leo Frank. Letters poured great popularity . The Atlanta Police faced social unrest and needed a quick in, mass meetings were held across the conviction in order to preserve the public trust ). country and support for Leo Frank was 3. What do you think the minister at Mary’s church meant when he said, demonstrated in numerous venues. “This one old Negro would be poor atonement for the life of this innocent girl?” (Possible responses: He felt the life of a black person was not equal to the life of John Slaton, one of the most popular a white person; also, blaming Leo Frank was a way of making Jewish people governors of Georgia, had the pay for what was perceived as their economic exploitation of other groups ). opportunity to pass along the request 4. How did newspapers affect the outcome of Leo Frank’s trial? How does for commutation to his successor. Slaton media coverage of the Frank trial compare with coverage of sensational chose, instead, to take upon himself murder cases today? (Sensational news stories whetted the public’s appetite the responsibility for what would be a for vengeance and put strong pressure on the jury to convict Frank . Answers choice which would affect his future as to the second questions will vary ). well as the future of Leo Frank. Slaton 5. Why was Leo Frank lynched after his guilt in the murder of Mary Phagan commuted Frank’s sentence and ordered became questionable and the governor had granted him clemency? the sheriff to transfer Leo Frank to (Neither the evidence in the case nor the governor’s pardon could subdue the the state prison farm in Milledgeville. community’s hatred of Leo Frank ). Slaton’s decision evoked death threats, 6. Why do we often look for scapegoats when something goes wrong? scathing newspaper editorials and an How does prejudice contribute to scapegoating? (Laying blame gives end to a promising political career. A us the illusion of putting our world back in order . Also, it can relieve our mob stormed the governor’s mansion, guilt, explain the unexplainable and provide an outlet for our anger . Our throwing rocks and bottles. Slaton left prejudices help us rationalize our choice of victims ). the state on an extended trip. In Marietta, Georgia, Jewish business owners were threatened if they did not leave. Writing Assignments: The Ballad of Leo Frank In Milledgeville, a prisoner slashed Leo Frank’s throat. Frank survived the 1. You are an editor of the Atlanta Journal or the Atlanta Constitution in attack, but just a month later was roused 1915, when Leo Frank is lynched. Write an editorial explaining how by 25 prominent Marietta citizens, intolerance led to the murder of an innocent man. How do you explain abducted and driven to an oak tree the behavior of the people who cut off pieces of the rope and Frank’s in Frey’s Gin in Marietta. The lynch nightshirt as souvenirs? mob told Frank that it was their task 2. A ballad is a song or poem in which a tragic narrative is graphically to carry out the sentence against him. recounted. Write a “Ballad of Leo Frank” in which you retell this story in They placed the noose around his neck verse form with a refrain (repeating chorus). Choose an existing ballad and hanged him. That morning, crowds melody or compose your own tune. gathered to witness Frank’s body 3. Have you ever been singled out as a scapegoat? Have you ever swinging from the rope. Photographs participated in scapegoating someone else? Write a short paper were taken to commemorate the describing either situation. How did you feel at the time of the incident? occasion and pieces of the rope and Leo How did you feel later? Frank’s nightshirt were cut and taken as souvenirs of the event.

42 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited At Issue: SCAPEGOATS

In an old Jewish ritual, the high priest chose one goat each year – the scapegoat – to represent the sins of the whole nation. After a confession ceremony, the priest let the goat escape to carry the sins away.

Whenever something goes wrong around us, it is part of our human nature to look for someone to blame – to find a scapegoat. Sometimes we point at others to keep from being blamed ourselves. Usually, though, we just choose an easy target – someone we don’t like much anyway, or someone it’s easy to imagine doing wrong. If the wrong is big enough, we might look for a scapegoat big enough to properly pay for it.

For the white, Christian majority of Atlanta in 1913, the murder of Mary Phagan confirmed the worst fears about a rapidly changing world. In Leo Frank, a northern Jew, the community found a symbol for the factory system that was draining the life out of young girls. To many people, it didn’t matter that Frank might be innocent. What mattered were his position and his background and what they stood for in the public mind.

Laying blame gives us the illusion of putting our world back in order. It can also relieve our own guilt, explain the inexplicable and provide an outlet for anger. But each time we lay blame mistakenly, we only demean ourselves and put off addressing the real problem.

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 43 The Ballad of Mary Phagan by Fiddlin’ John Carson

Little Mary Phagan went to town one day, And went to the pencil factory to see the big parade. She left home at eleven, And kissed her mother goodbye, Not one time did the poor child think that she was going to die.

Leo Frank met her, with a brutal heart we know, He smiled and said, “Little Mary, Now you will go home no more.” He sneaked along behind her, Till she reached the metal room, He laughed and said, “Little Mary, you have met your fatal doom.”

She fell upon her knees, and to Leo Frank she pled, He took this stick from the trash pile And hit her across the head. The tears rolled down her rosy cheeks, While the blood flowed down her back, But still she remembered telling her mother What time she would be back.

He killed little Mary Phagan-- --it was on a holiday-- And he called on Jim Conley to take her body away. He took her to the basement, She was bound hand and feet, And down in the basement little Mary lay asleep.

Newt Lee was the watchman-- when he went to wind his key, Down in the basement, little Mary could he see. He called for the officers-- their names I do not know. They came to the pencil factory Says, “Newt Lee, you must go.”

They took him to the jailhouse, They locked him in a cell, But the poor innocent Negro Knew nothing for to tell.

I have a notion in my head that when Frank comes to die, And stands the examination in the courthouse in the skies, He will be astonished at the questions The angels are going to say Of how he killed little Mary on one holiday.

Come all you good people wherever you may be, And supposing little Mary belonged to you or me. Her mother sat a weeping--she weeps and mourns all day-- She prays to meet her darling in a better world some day.

Little Mary is in Heaven, while Leo Frank is in jail, Waiting for the day to come when he can tell his tale. Judge Roan passed the sentence And you bet he passed it well; Solicitor Hugh M. Dorsey sent Leo Frank to hell. Now, God Bless her mother.

44 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Fiddlin’ John Carson

The story of the birth of Fiddlin’ John Carson is the beginning of the myth of the man and his times. Stories told by the musician recount his date of birth as March 23, 1868 in a rural section of North Georgia, Blue Ridge. The facts set his actual date of birth in March of 1874 in Smyrna, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. It is believed that Carson changed the real story to create a sense that he was like his followers – rural, older and forced from his agrarian life into the difficult life of the city.

As a young man, John Carson moved to Marietta, Georgia, where he pursued a number of occupations. He worked on a farm, for the railroad, at a still where he manufactured moonshine, as a house painter and a horse jockey. By 1913, he began to display his musical talent and competed in various conventions for fiddlers as well as at political meetings and other public events. Carson was a savvy self promoter and understood that his image was as important as his musical talent. He developed a patter which included stories of his economic travails as a farmer, his experiences making moonshine and the time he allegedly spent as a prisoner in jail. To further his image, he sometimes brought his hound dog to his concerts, Sheet music and player piano reel of the Ballad of Mary Phagan, c.1925. encouraging it to howl along with his musical accompaniment.

Fiddlin’ John Carson became a household name during the trial of succeeded in becoming a regular Fiddlin’ John Carson, recorded another Leo Frank in 1913. His ballad, “Little performer on the station and developed song about the Leo Frank case, “The Mary Phagan” could be heard on the a following in Atlanta and other cities Grave of Little Mary Phagan ”. Public streets of Atlanta during and after the where his broadcast could be heard. This sentiment about Leo Frank and the trial. In the lyrics, Carson portrayed led to a recording contract for Carson. murder of the young, innocent factory Mary Phagan as an innocent young Sales of his records far exceeded the girl provided the fodder for Carson to girl, devoted to her mother, defiled and expectations of the recording company further his career. murdered by the cruel, vicious Leo and led to a successful musical career Frank. The song reflected the views for Carson. Before Carson’s death in December of of much of the populace of Atlanta 1949, he worked as an elevator operator and became the vehicle through Carson’s daughter, Rosa Lee, took the at the State Capitol of Georgia. This which Carson would become famous. opportunity to perform with her father. job was a reward for the many political She used the stage name, Moonshine events at which he had performed. From that point on, Carson’s musical Kate, and was one of the first female Fiddlin’ John Carson was inducted career blossomed. He lobbied the local country music performers. In 1925 into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame radio station, WSB, for an opportunity she made a recording of “Little Mary in 1984. to play his music on the radio. He Phagan.” In the same year, her father,

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 45 The Ballad of Mary Phagan Questions and Activities

1. What is a ballad?

What is its purpose?

How does The Ballad of Mary Phagan fit the definition of a ballad?

2. Why do you suppose the song became so popular among the population of Atlanta? How did the ballad provide an alternative to the written word?

Why might this have been an important way to tell the story of the Leo Frank case?

3. Identify words of bias in the lyrics of the ballad.

What adjectives are used to describe Mary Phagan?

What response is the writer hoping to evoke from the use of these words?

What adjectives are used to describe Leo Frank?

What response is the writer hoping to evoke from these words?

4. Create a timeline of the case from the words of the ballad. How does the progression of events in the song compare with the actual timeline of the case?

5. What events in the song are imagined by the writer?

Why do you think he includes these events in his song?

6. Why do you think Fiddlin’ John Carson wrote this song?

What did he know about his potential audience before he wrote the lyrics?

7. Using information from your research, write a ballad about one of the other characters in the case. Use facts as well as imagined events to tell the story. Remember to abide by the characteristics of ballads.

8. List the events recounted in the ballad and based on your research, mark whether they are based in fact, hearsay or are completely imagined by the writer.

9. Using the accompanying biography, give other examples of how Fiddlin’ John Carson understood his audience and how he appealed to their beliefs, concerns and experiences.

46 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Creating Context –Themes inmerican A History The study of the Leo Frank Case can be successfully integrated into existing history courses in the

Georgia social studies curriculum.

This section of the teacher guide presents topics and methodological approaches for incorporating the study of the Leo Frank Case into courses in American History. A thorough study of the events of the case and its aftermath is a prerequisite to the students’ ability to apply these facts to the themes listed in this section. Segregation

Segregation is defined as the policy or practice of separating people of For research and different races, classes, or ethnic groups, as in schools, housing, and public or discussion: commercial facilities, especially as a form of discrimination . Segregation, 1. How did segregation of as well as slavery, was an integral part bathroom facilities at the of the antebellum South. By the end of National Pencil Company play a the Civil War, on December 6, 1865, role in determining the veracity the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Ticket to segregated theatre of Jim Conley’s testimony Constitution was passed, effectively regarding where in the factory abolishing slavery in the United States. the murder was committed and Segregation, however, was still legal. what he said he did with Mary Phagan’s body? In an effort to continue to keep the races with the case of Plessy v . Ferguson. This apart and prevent African Americans landmark case, brought to the United 2. Using the website listed from achieving equal status with States Supreme Court in 1896, affirmed below, research the history white Americans, the Jim Crow laws the constitutionality of segregation of Rich’s Department Store, were created. These laws, directly or under the doctrine of “separate but which opened for business in indirectly, led to strict separation of the equal”. In the South, in particular, one Atlanta in 1864. http://www. races. Jim Crow laws were enacted by could find separate facilities for the newgeorgiaencyclopedia.org/ local and state governments beginning races in settings like schools, railroads, nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1888 in 1876, after Reconstruction. After the bus waiting areas and restrooms. In Civil War, segregation continued in reality, many of these facilities, although Who were the founders of the much of the United States either as de separate, were not equal. The doctrine store and where were they from? jure segregation, segregation mandated of separate but equal was finally struck by law, or de facto segregation, down in the 1954 Supreme Court How did the owners of Rich’s segregation existing in practice. decision, Brown v . Board of Education . deal with their customers By the 1960s, with the passage of the who were suffering from the The first major test of the legality of Civil Rights Laws, de jure segregation dramatic drop in cotton prices segregation in the United States came was eliminated from American life. in 1914?

What role did Rich’s later play in the desegregation of Atlanta?

3. Describe the composition of the jury in the Leo Frank Case. How did the composition of the jury reflect the demographics of the city of Atlanta?

4. Read on the following page about the motion for a new trial and the accusations against two members of the jury in the Leo Frank Case.

Rich’s Department Store, Atlanta, 1925

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 49 In the early fall of 1913, Leo Frank’s lawyers requested a hearing and set forth 115 arguments as to why Leo Frank should be granted a new trial. Among those 115 arguments was the allegation that the jury, and in particular, two members of the jury, were biased against Leo Frank before the court case actually began. The motion, written by Leo Frank’s lawyers, stated, “Johenning had a fixed opinion that the defendant was guilty prior to, and at the time he was taken on the jury and was not an impartial juror.” Regarding Henslee they wrote, “Henslee was prejudiced against the View of the all-male and all-white jury, reprinted in the Motion for a New Trial, 1913. defendant when he was selected as a juror, had previously thereto formed and expressed a decided opinion as to the guilt of the defendant and in favor of the state.” These allegations were reflected in the headline of the Atlanta newspaper, the Journal: “Jurors Johenning and Henslee Both Attacked, They Are Alleged to Have Gone on the Jury Prejudiced.”

To prove the bias of the jurors, the lawyers had collected numerous affidavits from people all over Georgia who swore that they had heard comments regarding Leo Frank’s guilt from each of the jurors prior to the collected evidence of threats against trial. Johenning had visited a co-worker the jurors if they would have found Leo For discussion: and his family in May. They quoted Frank not guilty. Johenning as saying, “I know that he’s 1. Do you believe the jurors were guilty.” Witnesses at the Elks Club in In response to the charges of bias against prejudiced by the pre-trial Atlanta remembered Henslee saying, members of the jury, Hugh Dorsey, the publicity? Explain. “I am glad they indicted the God damn Solicitor General, rejected the claims Jew. They ought to take him out and of Leo Frank’s lawyers. He asserted 2. Did the jurors have a right to lynch him, and if I get on that jury I’ll that even if what the witnesses had said have an opinion about the case hang that Jew, sure.” Farther away, in about Henslee were true, Henslee was before they heard the evidence? Albany, Georgia, a witness stated that merely expressing his personal opinion before the trial, he heard Henslee say, about the case and like any other citizen, 3. Do you believe Judge Roan “I believe Frank is guilty.” had a right to do just that. ruled correctly on the motion for a new trial? Why or why not? The newspaper, the Georgian, quoted After much deliberation, Judge Roan Leo Frank’s lawyer, Reuben Arnold, denied the request for a new trial. declaring, “Henslee’s prejudice and that He said, “Gentlemen, I have thought of Johenning alone constitute a situation about this case more than any other I that is sufficient to form a basis for a new have ever tried. I am not certain of this trial. It is unthinkable that a man should man’s guilt. With all the thought I have be sentenced to death when two of the put on this case, I am not thoroughly men were violently biased against him convinced that Frank is guilty or before a word of evidence was heard.” innocent.” But Judge Roan did not Arnold also told the newspaper that think that his own uncertainty was he and Leo Frank’s other lawyers had the issue here. “But I do not have to obtained affidavits from other witnesses be convinced. The jury was convinced. who also heard Henslee express his There is no room to doubt that. I feel it certainty of Leo Frank’s guilt before the is my duty to order that the motion for start of the trial. In addition, they had a new trial be overruled.”

50 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Child Labor

The Industrial Revolution produced In an effort to regulate child labor in jobs. Workers had to be at least 18 to many changes in American life. Where America, Congress passed laws in 1918 be employed in certain jobs considered work done by hand had been the and 1922. Both laws were struck down dangerous. These protections still apply norm, now machines manufactured by the Supreme Court, which ruled to most American children but do not the same goods more quickly and both laws unconstitutional. Finally the apply to children of non-citizens or to cheaply. Factories were built to mass Fair Labor Standards Act was passed children in other countries. There are produce these items. Workers did not in 1938. This law set a minimum age of still cases of abuses of child labor in the need specialized skills or significant 16 for workers employed during regular world today. strength to operate the machines in school hours and 14 for some after school these factories. A child labor force could do the same work as adults, for less pay. By the middle of the 19th century, child labor was commonplace in the industrialized cities of America.

Before the growth of factories, children in America had toiled on farms with their families. As rural families moved to the cities, children from these poor families now found work in factories. The working conditions there were particularly terrible. Many children, some as young as 7 or 8, worked for 12 to 18 hours per day, six days per week. Pay was meager. Factories were often dark, dirty and dangerous. The long hours made it impossible for working children to attend school.

Child labor in the United States continued throughout the 19th century. Some efforts were made to outlaw child Force working in West Point (Miss.) Cotton Mills, May, 1911: Lewis Wickes Hine, 1874-1940, labor. In 1813, Connecticut passed a photographer. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 law requiring working children to have some schooling. By the close of the 19th century, in 1899, 28 states had passed laws to regulate child labor. Georgia was not one of those states. In 1910, less than one half of white school age children in Atlanta were enrolled in the city’s public schools.

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 51 Child Labor Questions

1. School attendance in Georgia did not become compulsory until 1916, three years after the murder of Mary Phagan. Laws enacted at that time required children ages 6 to 16 to attend school. When was Mary Phagan murdered?

How did lack of compulsory school attendance at the time of the Leo Frank Case have an effect on the type of workers employed by The National Pencil Company?

2. At the time of the Leo Frank Case, Georgia did not require school attendance although other states had already enacted laws regarding compulsory school attendance.

How did the antebellum agricultural economy of the South play a role in delaying Georgia’s adoption of these laws?

How did the slow industrialization of the South and the collapse of the price of cotton contribute to the growth of the child labor force in Georgia?

Why did some Georgia families send their young daughters to work?

How might Georgia parents have felt about sending their daughters to work? Towards whom might they have directed these feelings? Why?

Activities

1. Create an editorial cartoon in which you condemn the abuses of child labor.

2. Write an editorial in which you give reasons for extending compulsory schooling in Georgia to the age of 16.

3. Research the use and abuse of child labor today using the following website: http://www.hrw.org/children/labor.htm Write a report in which you give examples of types of child labor found in the world today. In conclusion, read about the foundation principles of the universal rights of children from the Convention on the Rights of the Child: http://www.unicef.org/why/why_rights.html List and explain the fundamental rights of children as identified in this document.

52 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Religious Bias and Incendiary Language

James Oglethorpe founded the colony of Georgia in 1733. His objective was to establish a place for British debtors and in doing so, create a buffer between British Carolina to the north and Catholic Spanish Florida to the south. The colony also was to provide a sanctuary for the religiously oppressed in Europe. Groups such as the Lutheran Salzburgers and Jews were invited to immigrate to the colony. From its inception in 1733, however, the colony of Georgia was not open to “Papists”, Catholics. King George made specific reference to the exclusion of Catholics in the charter for the Georgia colony: “...All such persons except Papists Gen. James E. Oglethorpe, founder of the colony [Catholics] shall have a free exercise of Georgia of their religion so [long as] they be contented with the quiet and peaceable enjoyment of the same not giving offense or scandal to the government.” In the Tom Watson, ca. 1900 1750s, when Georgia became a royal colony, Catholics were still banned. Watson of publishing pornographic By the time Governor John Slaton of It was not until after the American material. In spite of the accusations, Georgia commuted the sentence of Leo Revolution that Catholics were free to Watson had achieved his goal, to stir Frank to life in prison, Tom Watson had come to Georgia. up anti -Catholic prejudices amongst made his intentions clear. His articles his constituency. hinted about the possibility of local Anti Catholic sentiments emerged again Georgians taking “justice” into their in Georgia in the late 1800s with the Tom Watson also used his publications own hands. “The next Jew who does involvement of some Georgia Catholic to express his opinions regarding what Frank did, is going to get exactly politicians in the corrupt practices of the the murder of Mary Phagan. His the same thing that we give to Negro state Democratic Party. The American journalistic criticisms of Leo Frank rapists,” he wrote. “The next Leo Frank Protective Association, an anti Catholic and the power of Jewish and northern case in Georgia will never reach the group from the Midwest, came to influences in Georgia had a huge courthouse.” “Now let outsiders attend Georgia to publicize what it identified as impact on public sentiment, turning to their own business, AND LEAVE the dangers of Catholic influence. This it against Frank, who was ultimately OURS ALONE.” group ultimately caused the demise of lynched by a mob of prominent Georgia the Catholic public school systems in citizens in 1915. Tom Watson’s attacks In 1915, Leo Frank was lynched and Macon and Augusta. The American on Jews became more frequent and the Ku Klux Klan was reactivated in Protective Association also stirred up virulent during the trial and its Georgia. The primary targets of this anti-Catholic prejudice and resentment aftermath. They served to further newly reorganized Klan were African among Georgians. inflame the local population. “Let the Americans, Jews, and Catholics. Tom war begin,” was how Watson initiated Watson had successfully used the In 1908, Tom Watson used his his attacks on Leo Frank individually, power of words to encourage religious, publication, the Jeffersonian Magazine and Northern Jews, collectively. Watson racial and sectional biases in the people to print his bitter anti-Catholic wrote, “Frank belonged to the Jewish of Atlanta. writings. His negative references to all aristocracy, and it was determined Catholics, and descriptions of Catholic by the rich Jews that no aristocrat of priests as “foreign foes” tapped into the their race should die for the death of religious prejudices of Atlantans. Over a working-class gentile.” During the time, his allegations against Catholics trial and appeals of Leo Frank, the grew increasingly obscene, so much so readership of the Jeffersonian grew that the federal government accused from 25,000 to almost 90,000.

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 53 Religious Bias and Incendiary Language Questions

1. What does it mean to be a “Papist”?

What fears did non-Catholic citizens have about Catholics?

Explain how those fears might have played a role in the political campaigns of Al Smith and John F. Kennedy.

How have religious biases played a role in the War on Terror?

2. What recourse did victims of religious bias have in 1915?

When were the civil rights laws passed in this country?

How do the civil rights laws protect all of America’s citizens?

3. What were the goals of the Ku Klux Klan?

Which religious and ethnic groups did it target?

Describe the rebirth of the KKK after the Leo Frank Case.

How did the Klan use terror to achieve its goals?

Are there limits on our freedoms of speech and assembly?

54 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Barretts Bald Mountain House brochure, Old Forge, NY, ca.1930. Courtesy of The Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake, New York, ca. 1930

The Jeffersonian, April 9, 1914

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 55 Women’s Suffrage

Suffrage is defined as the right or chance to express an opinion or participate in a decision. In 1913, American women did not have the right of suffrage, the right to vote. Many believed that it was the role of men to represent the political views of the family. But others believed that women had a right to vote. In the mid 1800s, before the Civil War, the American Women’s Suffrage Movement had already begun. Leaders like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony risked arrest and imprisonment to bring their case for the right of women to vote to the public. Their battle for equal political rights for women in America lasted almost 70 years. By the beginning of the 1900s, a number of states gave Elizabeth Cady Stanton Susan B. Anthony women the right to vote. It was the 19th Amendment, ratified by Congress in 1920, that finally granted suffrage to all American women. womanhood.” Mary Phagan’s murder in the factory, where she was easy By the late 1800s, the economy of prey for a male perpetrator, naturally the South shifted from the farm to became a prime example of the evil to manufacturing, from rural to city life. which southern women were vulnerable And as the post Civil War economy of the when not under the care and protection South became more reliant on industry, of southern men. A friend of Mary’s, the balance of power between men 15 year old George Epps, testified that and women began to shift. Southern Mary had requested that he come to the white women and young girls, who had National Pencil Company at the end of customarily worked alongside men on the day to escort her home. He viewed farms, now had to find employment in his role as being there to “protect” the new factories being established in Mary from her deceitful supervisor, the cities. Fathers and husbands who Leo Frank. had viewed their roles as breadwinners and protectors of the family were now Legal, social and economic inequality in a situation where they no longer had for women supported views of women complete control over their wives and as weak and in need of protection. daughters. They saw the factory as a Economic factors propelled women place where the innocence of women into the workforce, however, so that was at risk. Supervisors and those in many were no longer sheltered in the authority in the factories, especially protected environment of the home. those from the North, were considered Factory bosses, particularly if they a particular danger. The press used the were northern or “foreign,” were viewed Leo Frank case as an opportunity to as dangerous and even predatory. dramatize the dangers faced by women The presence of women and young and girls in the workforce. girls in the workforce reinforced this idea of women’s vulnerability. The It was in this context that Leo Frank murder of Mary Phagan, then, clearly became, in the words of historian demonstrated what could happen to a John Higham, “a symbol of the young woman in a dangerous situation, northern capitalist exploiting southern unprotected by her husband or father.

56 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Women’s Suffrage Activities

1. Research the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Write a report about Susan B. Anthony or Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

What motivated these women to become suffragettes?

What kind of support, if any, did they receive from their families?

What risks did they take to fight for women’s right to vote?

What successes and failures did they experience in their lifetimes?

How did they go about publicizing and promoting women’s suffrage?

Which states gave women the right to vote before the Nineteenth Amendment was passed?

2. In Henry E. Barber’s article “The Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching, 1930-1942,” he notes that according to the Tuskegee Institute, 4,761 lynchings were recorded between 1882 and 1930. Of these, 71% of them were lynchings of African Americans, and 3,810 of them took place in the Confederate States, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. The most commonly used excuse to justify lynching in the South was “in defense of southern white women.” Use the website below to read about other lynchings in the United States: http://www.argo217.k12.il.us/departs/english/blettiere/lynching_newspaper_articles.pdf

Of what kinds of offenses were the victims often accused?

How do you think the members of the lynch mobs justified their actions?

3. Create a poster in which you promote giving women the right to vote. In the poster, give at least 2 reasons why women should be given the right to vote.

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 57 Growth of the Cities at the Turn of the Century

After Reconstruction, widespread The job market in America’s industrial changes took place, not just in the cities often welcomed the new South, but in cities all over the United immigrants with low paying jobs and States. These changes included the dangerous working conditions. Young arrival of waves of immigrants from and old, many of whom could not Western Europe, Central and Eastern speak English, toiled in sweatshops for Europe, and Asia. These immigrants meager salaries. Factory owners were contributed to significant changes in motivated to increase profits by offering the populations of America’s cities. low pay for long hours. New innovations Their needs dictated changes in in industry continued to increase the housing, the job market, transportation need for unskilled labor and these new and social and community services. Americans became an integral part of New inventions, meant to improve this labor pool. the everyday lives of Americans, also contributed to these changes. Indoor Community activists attempted to plumbing, the telephone, the electric address the problems of the immigrants light and the automobile reshaped jobs, and the cities in which they lived. They homes and cities. By the early 1900s wrote scathing editorials and articles The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was a building Americans struggled to keep up with about conditions in the tenements which was considered to be fireproof. these changes and demands. and factories. Settlement houses were Courtesy of the International Ladies Garment neighborhood welfare institutions, Workers Union Archives, Kheel Center, Cornell The diversity of these new Americans generally in poor areas of the city, University put a burden on the infrastructure of where employees tried to improve social American cities. New and inexpensive conditions by providing community types of housing – tenements – became services and cooperation. They provided The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was the trend in city residences for language lessons and opportunities for a building which was considered to be immigrants. These buildings were often new Americans to learn about their new fireproof. In fact, there had been other poorly and hastily constructed, providing country. Activists lobbied for increased fires in the building before the tragedy. little in the way of space, sanitary and improved public services. Through facilities, privacy and safety. Epidemics the written word and photography, they Fire department equipment was not plagued these densely populated spaces. revealed the abuses of child labor. Labor adequate to reach the higher floors of Fires could break out at any time and organizers tried to improve working the building. residents had little opportunity to escape conditions, but they understood the the blazes. Density of population also power of the factory owners. They led to an increase in crime in tenement realized that the only way they could communities. Although electric lights stand up for workers was to organize had recently been invented, not all city them into labor unions. Through the streets had been updated with this power of their numbers they attempted crime deterrent. The city police and fire to make their voices heard. departments and sanitation facilities were stretched beyond their limits. The early 20th century was a time of They had neither the manpower nor sweeping change and the changes in equipment to adequately protect the America’s cities created significant expanding populations of the cities. This improvements and hardships to which rapid growth made American cities ripe Americans would take decades to adapt. for disaster.

58 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Growth of the Cities at the Turn of the Century Activities

1. Research some of the new inventions which were created from 1865 to 1920. You may use your own sources or the following website: http://www.trivia-library.com/a/a-list-of-famous-inventions-and-inventors.htm

List at least 10 inventions, the inventors, the year they were invented, and explain how they improved the quality of life of Americans living during that period.

2. Using the website: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/ write a report about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

When did the fire occur?

Why couldn’t the workers escape from the building?

How many died in the fire?

How many were female?

Can you tell how many were immigrants?

How old were most of the victims?

What was the public reaction to the fire?

What changes were demanded after the tragedy?

What changes were actually implemented after the tragedy?

3. Research the Nativist movement in America using the following website: http://www.tenement.org/encyclopedia/nativism_discrim.htm .

What was the Nativist Movement?

To what was this movement a response?

To what kinds of prejudices were immigrants subjected?

Compare and contrast the Nativist Movement and how Americans today are reacting to immigration into the United States.

Research how countries like Great Britain and France are dealing with immigration issues today.

4. Write an article about the deteriorating condition of America’s cities at the turn of the century. Make at least 3 proposals about what planners and politicians could do to improve life in the city.

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 59 Jewish Immigration in Atlanta

Nativism began to permeate Atlanta society in the early twentieth century. German Jews, many of whom were among the city’s pioneer families and had fought for the Confederacy, were alarmed by the arrival of large numbers of Russian Jews. Although they were concerned for the welfare of their Russian co-religionists, German Jews were effectively segregated from this group by differences in religious observance and economic circumstances. The German Jews and Russian Jews often lived in separate communities. Many of the Russian newcomers had not yet mastered English, dressed differently from their German Jewish and gentile neighbors and continued traditions they had pursued in their Eastern European homelands. As a consequence, Jewish social and communal organizations in Atlanta were divided. Separate Yiddish Progressive Dramatic Club, 1917. synagogues, cemeteries and country The Russian community was not always willing to relinquish its “Old-World” customs and language. clubs were designated for German or Russian Jews. In spite of these internal divisions in the Jewish community, many non-Jewish Atlantans tended to view the Jewish population as a single entity.

Jews of all backgrounds increasingly became associated with the evils of industrialization. Jewish management of a number of saloons and pawn shops on and near Decatur Street, and the Jewish ownership of some of Atlanta’s largest mills and factories seemed to reinforce these views. It was in the context of these tensions within and without the Jewish community of Atlanta, and the growth of anti-immigration sentiment in the United States that the case against Leo Frank was made.

60 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Jewish Immigration in Atlanta Activities

1. Using the following website, research the two main waves of Russian Jewish immigration into Atlanta: http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/28.html

What event in Russia prompted the wave of emigration of Russian Jews beginning in 1881?

What event in Russia in 1906 prompted the second wave of Jewish emigration?

2. Some of Atlanta’s oldest synagogues include Ahavath Achim, The Temple and Shearith Israel. Read about the history of each using the following website, and learn about when they were established and for which group of Atlanta’s Jews they provided religious services: http://www.thebreman.org/research/synagogues.htm

3. Learn about Jacob Elsas and the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills: http://www.library.gatech.edu/fulton_bag/history.html

Research the work stoppage which occurred in 1913.

What two things prompted the employees to strike at that time?

What interpretation did the employees have for the owner’s change in policy?

How did the owners of the mill respond to the striking workers?

What was the response of the workers in 1914?

What had this series of events encouraged the workers to do?

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 61

The Press and thease C

The Press and the Frank Case by Steve Oney

On the morning of Sunday, April 27, proclaimed “Police Have the Strangler ”. journalism and Hollywood. Soon, 1913, Atlantans awakened to an “Extra” A greater lapse in journalistic ethics Collier’s Weekly and movie stars leapt to edition of the Constitution carrying a would be hard to imagine. Frank’s aid. In contemporary dollars, brief item relating that the body of Lasker spent nearly $2 million in the a young girl had been discovered Such headlines convinced many of superintendent’s behalf. during the night at the National Pencil Frank’s guilt before any evidence was Company downtown. A reporter who’d presented. Atlanta had never seen the Ochs initially resisted overtures to back been passed out at police headquarters likes of it. “This is an intelligent woman,” Frank because, as an assistant put it, he when the call came in got the scoop. The noted a detective summarizing an didn’t want the Times to be perceived Constitution did not, however, own the interview with a source who said she as “a Jewish newspaper.” But by early exclusive long. The next day the then possessed important clues. “She reads 1914 he abandoned his qualms, devoting separately controlled Journal jumped all the news on the Phagan murder case, the resources of both his news and into the fray. But it was the Georgian, at and I think she drew these conclusions editorial staffs to the cause. During the a circulation of 38,000 the city’s weakest and thinks of them so much that she next 18 months the Times would publish daily, that for all intents and purposes does not know whether she read them or hundreds of articles and editorials commandeered the story. whether someone told her . That is, she is about the case. Sample headlines from well-read to the extent that she is crazy ”. December, 1914 give an accurate sense Purchased just the year before by of the Times’ point of view. Boomed William Randolph Hearst, the Georgian The disorienting bombardment one: “Lawyers Unite For Frank ”. Roared employed every armament in the continued during Frank’s month long another: “Atlanta’s Mob Spirit” On New controversial press baron’s arsenal. trial. Reporters for the Constitution, the Year’s Day Frank wrote Ochs a thank Stripped down the center of the paper’s Journal, and the Georgian jotted down you note: “I think that a more thorough first front page devoted to the subject testimony, which copy boys rushed to understanding of the case among the was a photo of the victim – 13-year-old their respective newsrooms. There, people throughout the United States has child laborer Mary Phagan – snapped compositors set the “Q&A” in type, been brought about to a great extent by the at the morgue. A headline emblazoned rewrite men pounded out fresh leads, space you have so kindly given to it ”. over the masthead offered a “$500 and plates were engraved from sketches Reward” for information leading to produced by courtroom artists. The Unfortunately for Frank, the Times’ her killer’s arrest and conviction. resulting Extras contained both up-to- entry into the battle prompted a Despite the fact that the weather was the minute developments and lavish backlash. Not only did most Georgians dry, a feature piece quoted the child’s illustrations. The Georgian excelled at this believe the factory boss was guilty of grandfather demanding vengeance game. On the day of Frank’s conviction, murdering Mary Phagan, but at a time while standing in a downpour. (“It the paper printed 131,208 copies – more when the bruises of the Civil War were wasn’t raining, but it might have been,” than triple its pre-Hearst circulation. still fresh they resented a Northern the reporter who wrote the article later paper dictating to their courts. Future confessed.) New editions – all carrying United States Senator Thomas Watson, similarly incendiary material and each who published the Jeffersonian, an topped with crimson streamers – rolled influential weekly based in Thomson, off the presses almost hourly. “Our After Frank was sentenced to death, Georgia, articulated this position. paper,” a long-time Hearst writer would the coverage took a decidedly different Beneath the banner headline “The Leo subsequently recall, “was in modern turn. The glandular excitements of Frank Case . Does the State of Georgia parlance a wow . It burst upon Atlanta yellow journalism gave way to the white Deserve this Nation-wide abuse?” Watson like a bomb and upon the Constitution heat of advocacy. The view that the declared: “Mr . Adolph Ochs, a most useful and the Journal like the crack of doom ”. superintendent was an innocent victim servant of the Wall Street interests, runs of an anti-Semitic plot was promulgated a Tory paper in New York whose chief At first the coverage consisted largely by two of America’s most powerful media end in life seems to be to uphold all the of raw sensation, but as suspicion began moguls – Albert D. Lasker, president atrocities of special interest and all the to focus on Leo Frank, superintendent of the Chicago-based Lord & Thomas monstrous demands of Big Money ”. of the pencil factory and the last person Advertising Agency (predecessor to to admit seeing the Phagan girl alive, Foote, Cone and Belding), and Adolph The conflict was set. To each article biases emerged. On the morning Ochs, publisher of the New York Times. championing Frank in the Times, Watson Frank was arrested, the Georgian ran Lasker, who produced ad campaigns for responded with an article asserting, a page-one banner that over a picture Sunkist Orange Juice and Budweiser often in anti-Semitic language, Frank’s of the superintendent unequivocally Beer, worked his connections in guilt. The fight raged for a year, with

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 65 the Times holding sway in the North The next morning, the Telegraph gave The press’s abandonment of a topic that and the Jeffersonian, whose circulation prominent play to a chilling restatement had made frontpage headlines for two jumped from 25,000 to 87,000, in of these sentiments: “As it stands [in years was little noticed in the larger the South. Following Governor John Georgia], Israel itself stands indicted and scheme of things. World War I had Slaton’s decision to commute Frank’s is the object of a great deal of indignant started, and coverage of the fighting death sentence to life imprisonment, anger, but the individual Israelite is liked and of America’s likely participation Watson called for a lynching. On August and respected . dominated the news. Yet those who’d 16, 1915 the call was answered. been close to Frank understood that “Against the race generally, there they’d been shunned – they just didn’t is, however, a sentiment of anger, a understand why. “Strange to relate, the proneness to denunciation ...“If among ‘N Y. . Times’ does not carry anything these the outside newspapers generally there days,” the dead man’s mother, writing All three Atlanta newspapers strongly is any attempt at sustained denunciation from New York, uncomprehendingly condemned Frank’s lynching. So, too, of this state, Thomas Watson … will observed in a note to Frank’s widow. did the New York Times . Then for a answer in kind, more than in kind. combination of reasons the coverage The caravan had moved on. Unlike today’s stopped. At the Constitution and the Watson will be answered in kind and press that caravan was not composed Journal, the crime struck too close to so it will go on until the time will come of satellite trucks, mini-cams, and the home – the publishers of both papers had when he will tell the people of the obtrusive electronic gadgetry. Still, the relatives involved in the lynching or in a state of Georgia that the rich Jews of Frank case is emblematic. From start to later attempt to desecrate Frank’s body. the nation have bought up the press of finish, it was a media frenzy, a convergence For the Georgian, the vulnerability was the Republic to vilify and blackguard of journalistic excess and legal tragedy. financial. Atlantans began boycotting it. the state of Georgia in revenge for the (Hearst’s paper was never the same. It killing of Leo Frank. And when that Steve Oney lives in California, where he is a senior writer folded in 1939.) charge is brought it will be passionately for Los Angeles magazine. His And the Dead Shall Rise, and plausibly presented – and Georgia an examination of the Leo Frank case and winner of the The Times was stilled by a different generally will believe it … 2004 National Jewish Book Award for history, is now consideration, one articulated in two available in paperback from Vintage. powerful pieces of writing. The first The Ochses … and other leading Jews was by Times reporter Charles Willis of New York and the East now hold the Thompson, who in a story filed from comfort, safety, peace and happiness Atlanta captured the prevailing feeling. of the Jews of Georgia in the hollow of Activities “The bitter resentment over what their hands.” everybody in Georgia calls outside 1. Research the jury members in interference” led to Frank’s lynching, The Telegraph’s reaction deeply troubled the Leo Frank case who were he wrote. “Tom Watson has done his level Ochs, awakening in him the realization accused of bias. How might the best to make it appear that the New York that he might share some of the blame press have contributed to their newspapers are attempting to govern the for Frank’s fate and rekindling the fear bias? How might an unbiased jury have been selected? state of Georgia ”. that by aligning himself so thoroughly 2. Read about a current legal with the poor man he had endangered case which is receiving press The second piece was produced by the Times, coming close to making it the coverage. Find some of the a Georgian. In the aftermath of the one thing he’d never wanted it to be – a articles about the case. Analyze lynching Ochs had ordered a Times Jewish newspaper. these articles for content and editorial denouncing the crime to be language which might bias a jury. distributed to the state’s papers. His At a subsequent editorial conference How do you feel about the guilt or hope had been that they would reprint at the Times, the debate was sobering. innocence of the accused based it, but there were no takers. In fact the Some argued that the Telegraph’s on what you have read? Could you editor of The Macon Telegraph was so wire was “but a kind of intimidation,” be an unbiased member of the alarmed that he wired New York. In his maintaining that if Ochs genuinely jury in this case? Explain. diary, an Ochs confidant summarized believed in Frank’s innocence, he 3. Create 10 questions and follow the Macon editor’s thinking. “The should continue to demand that the up questions which you would message,” he wrote, “said that for Georgia authorities prosecute his have asked the potential jurors the sake of the Times and Mr . O . [the lynchers. Others advanced the opposite in the Leo Frank case in order to Telegraph] would not print the editorial view, arguing that since the Times had seat an unbiased jury. Remember as requested to do, and for the sake of the printed more stories on the matter than to consider what life was like decent people of Georgia and especially any other paper and Ochs was Jewish, in Atlanta in 1913, the long the sake of the Jews in Georgia, would Mr . the Telegraph was right. After listening lasting effects of the Civil War O . not stop this offensive propaganda . to the back and forth, the publisher and Reconstruction and racial It was the outside interference of the made his decision – the Times would and religious prejudices which Jews, led by the Times, that had made it drop the case. existed during that time. necessary to lynch Frank ”.

66 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited The Press and the Frank Case Questions

1. Name the important newspapers in Atlanta at the time of the Leo Frank case. How did these newspapers compete for readers?

2. What were some of the headlines that appeared in newspapers regarding this case?

3. How did William Randolph Hearst’s new newspaper, the Georgian, gain readers during this time?

4. Describe how pre-trial publicity affected the local population. How would this publicity affect the ability to find an unbiased jury?

5. Why did the support of the New York Times for Leo Frank cause a “backlash” in Georgia? What were the concerns of Adolph Ochs? Explain how Adolph Ochs and other Northern Jews did not understand the views of the Southern audience.

6. How did Tom Watson portray the efforts of the Times? To whom was he referring in his articles when he wrote about the “atrocities of special interest and all the monstrous demands of Big Money”? How did these comments reflect his anti-Semitic views?

7. Why did both the Atlanta Journal and the Constitution stop criticizing those responsible for Leo Frank’s lynching? Why did the New York Times cease its condemnation of the lynching?

8. Give two examples of how journalists explained that it was the outside interference of Jews and Northerners who made it necessary to lynch Leo Frank. What new responsibility did the Macon Telegraph ascribe to the Northern press?

9. What decision did Adolph Ochs finally make regarding the New York Times coverage of the lynching? What are two issues he considered in making his decision? Do you think he made the right choice? Why or why not?

10. Have you ever been the victim of bias? What are some of your and/or your family members’ experiences with bias? How did you or your family members respond?

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 67 Bias and The Press Lesson Plan

Objective: To help students define and identify bias as it applies to their own beliefs, behavior and decisions.

To identify bias in the press.

To identify the language of bias.

Materials: newspapers and news magazines

bias assessment forms

reproductions of newspaper and magazine articles from the Leo Frank case

Procedure: 1. Define bias. (Bias is defined as: A preference or an inclination, especially one that inhibits impartial judgment, an unfair act or policy stemming from prejudice ).

2. Discuss how bias affects choices we all make in our lives, to the detriment or benefit of others.

3. Create a bias assessment and have students respond to the groups listed. Review the list of groups with the students. Generate a discussion about how our biases have developed and how certain language can evoke particular responses from various audiences. Have an open discussion about the dangers of bias and using “loaded” words.

4. Using newspapers and news magazines, find references to some of the terms listed in the assessment as well as “loaded” terms identified by the class. Find instances in which the terms are meant to evoke a particular reaction.

5. Make a list of terms (groups) that were involved in the Leo Frank case (such as Jews, Christians, young working girls, Negroes, etc.). Using original articles from Atlanta newspapers of the period, find biased references to some of these groups. Identify the type of reactions which might have been elicited from these references.

6. Explain how the press was used in the Leo Frank case to bias readers.

7. Using contemporary newspapers, read about well publicized cases. Look for instances of bias and “loaded” language in these reports.

Assessment: Write a report on the responsibilities of having a free press. What are the advantages of a free press? What are the disadvantages? What are the benefits of controlling the press? What are the dangers? Do you think the press should be free or under governmental control under certain circumstances? Explain and support your answer.

68 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Creating a Bias Assessment

Directions: Create a bias assessment to distribute to your class.

Create lists of groups from the categories listed below.

You may add additional groups at your discretion.

Have students rank their views of the following groups using:

1 – negative

2 – ambivalent

3 – positive

Categories

Age

American regions

American states

Businesses

Economic groups

Foreigners

Historical groups

Interest groups

Nationalities

Political beliefs

Political parties

Professions

Religions

Social groups

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 69

Lynching as a Theme Strange Fruit

Lewis Allan (Abel Meeropol), 1939

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,

Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze,

Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant South,

The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,

Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,

Then the sudden smell of burning flesh!

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,

For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,

For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,

Here is a strange and bitter crop. Strange Fruit Questions

1. Research the life of the songwriter.

What was his occupation?

What was his political affiliation?

What motivated him to write this song?

Why do you think he used a pen name, rather than his own name?

2. What message is the songwriter trying to get across?

3. Who is the intended audience for this song?

What is the songwriter trying to do to his audience?

4. Compare and contrast the positive and negative images of the South portrayed by the songwriter.

5. Give examples of how the writer appeals to the different senses in his descriptions.

6. Fruit bearing trees grow throughout the South.

What is the usual purpose of the fruit of these trees?

What is the purpose of the “strange fruit” hanging from the trees described in the lyrics of the song?

7. Why does the songwriter purposely omit the word “lynching” from the lyrics? How does the audience get the message without the use of this word?

8 . Strange Fruit can be classified as a protest song.

Describe the historical issue to which it refers.

9. Find the lyrics to other protest songs which take a stand on historical issues.

When was this song written?

What historical issue is its topic?

What position on that issue is being expressed by the songwriter?

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 73 Speech Commemorating African American History Month President George W. Bush, Tuesday, February 12, 2008

“The noose is not a symbol of prairie justice, but of gross injustice.”

1. What is ‘prairie justice’?

2. For whom was the noose a symbol of prairie justice?

3. Whose job was it to protect the victims of lynching?

“Displaying one (a noose) is not a harmless prank. And ‘lynching’ is not a word to be mentioned in jest.” “As a civil society, we should be able to agree that noose displays and lynching jokes are deeply offensive. They are wrong. And they have no place in America today.”

1. Why might some people view the noose as a harmless joke?

2. For whom are the noose and lynching references generally offensive?

3. From a legal standpoint, how is the America of today different from the America of years ago, which tolerated lynching?

The use of this symbol shows a lack of sensitivity about “why the sight of a noose causes such a visceral reaction among so many people.”

1. What is a visceral reaction?

2. What kinds of emotions are invoked by this symbol?

President Bush described lynchings being perpetrated by mobs in the dark of night, with the cooperation and participation of law enforcement officials in “many cases.”

1. Explain how this statement accurately describes the lynching of Leo Frank.

2. How did such actions make it virtually impossible to bring the members of lynch mobs to justice?

3. When we think of lynchings, we often think of the victims and perpetrators. Look at the photograph of the lynching of Leo Frank. This photo became a picture post card. Some of the local people in the photo were bystanders. How would you classify the guilt or innocence of the bystanders? Explain.

“For generations of African Americans, the noose was more than a tool of murder. It was a tool of intimidation that conveyed a sense of powerlessness to millions.”

1. In years past, how might the threat of lynching have affected the interactions between whites and African Americans?

2. Why, today, is the noose still a negative symbol to African Americans? In the Jena Six case, who were the perpetrators, the intended “victims”, the bystanders? How did some of these roles change as the case progressed? What could have been done to reduce the tensions on campus before the incident? After the incident?

74 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited The lynching of Leo Frank. Note the men posing for the photographer and the man at the far left with his own camera.

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 75 Jacob Lawrence: An Artist’s View of the African American Experience

Jacob Lawrence. The Migration Series, Panel no. 15: There were lynchings. 1940 – 1941. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in; 30.5 x 45.7 cm. Courtesy of The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC.

Jacob Lawrence was born in 1917 in his paintings. He depicted historical Atlantic City, New Jersey. As a very events from the Civil War through young child he lived in Pennsylvania, but the desegregation of the South in the at the age of three he moved to Harlem 1960’s. in New York City. This was the period of the Harlem Renaissance, a time of The artist’s distinctive style and use explosive growth and development of of color and shapes presents a unique African American arts and culture. format for a chronicle of African Jacob Lawrence spent his formative American history. Jacob Lawrence was years in this rich environment. recognized in his lifetime for his unique talent in the visual arts. Jacob Lawrence Lawrence showed an aptitude for art at died in 2000. an early age. He participated in school and community art programs. At twenty, Lawrence received a scholarship for the American Artists School and became part of the Works Progress Administration’s artists in 1938, participating in the Federal Art Project. Questions

Over the years, the artist painted scenes 1. Why does the artist show just a noose, rather than a victim of the lynching? of the people of his community and the 2. What does the symbol of the noose represent? events which shaped their lives. Jacob 3. Describe the posture of the lone figure in the painting. What are some Lawrence’s works reflect the history adjectives you might use to describe his state of mind? of the African American experience. 4. How does this painting make you feel? Why? He did meticulous research on each of the subjects he incorporated into

76 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Jacob Lawrence. The Migration Series, Panel no. 1: During World War I there was a great migration north by southern African Americans. 1940 – 1941. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in; 30.4 x 45.7 cm. Courtesy of The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC. Questions

1. This painting was created shortly after the lynching of Leo Frank. What other historical events were taking place around the same time in history? 2. To which cities were these people traveling? What were they hoping to find there? What were they hoping they would not find there? 3. Using senses other than sight, describe what you might be hearing, Jacob Lawrence. Although the feeling and smelling in Negro was used to lynching, he this scene. found this an opportune time for him to leave where one had occurred. 1940-41. Tempera on gesso on composition board, 18 x 12 in.; 45.7 x 30.5 cm. Gift of Mrs. David M. Levy. © 2008 Jacob Lawrence

Questions

1. Why has Jacob Lawrence used a lone figure in this painting? 2. Where is your eye drawn in this painting? Why? 3. Describe the posture of the figure in the painting. What does this posture denote? How does it make you feel about the figure? 4. Where is the figure seated? What has the figure been doing? Why might the artist have chosen such a setting for his figure?

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 77 Analyzing Symbols

Using the internet source, adl.org/hate_symbols, choose one or more of the symbols displayed and try to answer these questions:

1. What does the symbol represent? Does it represent the same thing to different groups? Explain.

2. Is this symbol meant to portray something positive or negative? Could this symbol be viewed as having a neutral meaning?

3. When this symbol was designed, what was it meant to portray? Does it have the same meaning today?

4. Which groups of people would identify with this symbol and interpret it as a true reflection of their feelings?

5. Which groups of people would find this symbol offensive or even threatening?

6. Why would someone display or wear this symbol?

7. In a society where we are free to express our opinions, should people be permitted to display or wear symbols which offend others? Threaten others?

8. How do we draw the line in determining which symbols are acceptable and which symbols are not acceptable? How should we deal with people whose intent in wearing or displaying symbols is to intimidate others? How do we know when individuals are unaware of the meaning of these symbols? How should we deal with them?

9. Explain when, in a free society, hate speech or symbols are no longer within our rights of free speech.

10. Research how other nations deal with these issues:

Muslim nations and negative images of Islam

Some European nations and Holocaust denial

78 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Hate Symbols: How Should We Respond?

1. The noose is a hate symbol. Its purpose is to instill fear and terror in its target.

For what groups does the noose represent a hate symbol?

What history does it conjure up in the mind of the viewer?

How does this symbol suggest a violent outcome?

2. For some groups, the Confederate flag and the swastika are considered hate symbols.

For which groups do these symbols represent hate?

What history do these symbols conjure up in the mind of the viewer?

How do these symbols suggest a violent outcome?

3. What is the historical context for each of these three symbols?

Noose

Confederate flag

Swastika

4. How can the use of these symbols be viewed as a form of bullying?

5. When does “fooling around” and “just kidding” move beyond a joke and become a perceived threat?

6. Research other hate symbols.

What is this symbol supposed to represent?

What is the symbol’s historical context?

For what groups does this symbol represent a hate symbol?

Why might someone wear or display this symbol?

What types of people might wear or display this symbol? Why?

What types of people would not wear or display this symbol? Why?

7. Should the wearing or display of hate symbols be banned?

Where should they be allowed?

Where should they be banned?

Who should decide if they should be banned?

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 79 Jena Six Timeline Events of 2006

Background

Jena, LA is about 160 miles southeast of Shreveport and 220 miles northwest of New Orleans in central Louisiana. It was named for a German town; it is about 86 percent white and 12 percent black with per capital income of $13,761. Population: about 2,500. In 1991, Jena voted overwhelmingly in support of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke in his unsuccessful bid for governor.

For background on the Jena Six controversy, see http://uspolitics.about.com/b/2007/09/21/being-black-and-male-in-the-american-south.htm The cast of characters:

Student, Robert Bailey Jr., 17 Student Ryan Simmons, 17 Student Justin Barker, 17 Student Theo Shaw, 17 Student Mychal Bell, 16 Student Jessie Ray Beard, 14 Student Carwin Jones, 18 LaSalle Parish Schools Superintendent Roy D. Breithaupt Student Bryant Purvis, 17 LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters

The Timeline

31 Aug 2006 – A black student, 11 Sept 2006 – The School Board be your best friend or your Kenneth Purvis, a junior, asks, met for 10 minutes; it did not worst enemy. With a stroke of at a public assembly, if he can discuss the 1 September noose my pen, I can make your lives sit under an oak tree in the incident. disappear.” He reportedly lifted campus courtyard. The tree a fountain pen to make his had reportedly been planted by 18 Sept 2006 – The School Board met point. (Shreveport Times) white and blacks as a “unity” took a five-minute complaint tree. An administrator tells from one Jena High School Some reports indicate that in him he can sit anywhere. He parent but took no action -- and the general assembly the white and friends later sit with white had no discussion -- on the noose kids sit on one side and the friends under the tree. incident. The parent complained black kids on the other ... and that the three students were not that the DA was looking at the 1 Sept 2006 – Two or three nooses hang expelled. “We want our young black kids when he spoke. from the tree, a reminder of the people to really be equal and not Jim Crow South and the KKK. have to be reminded of the wrong The FBI said the noose incident (News reports are inconsistent; things that were done to our race looked like a hate crime. The some Louisiana papers say in the past.” (The Town Talk) US Attorney did not “press three, some say two.) No police federal charges because report was filed. A teacher Sept/Oct 2006 – The white students the case didn’t meet federal reportedly cut down the ropes. are reportedly suspended for criteria. The students were three days with a two-week under 18 and had no prior 7 Sept 2006 – The principal in-school suspension and some records, and no group such as recommends expelling Saturday detentions. (Details a Ku Klux Klan was found to be the three white students are not part of the public record.) behind their actions.” (CNN) responsible for hanging the nooses. Black students organize a 30 Nov 2006 – The main academic sit-in under the tree in protest; building of Jena High School 8 Sept 2006 – Recommendation reportedly the school was then burns to the ground: arson. The for expulsion overruled by placed on lockdown for a week. crime remains still unresolved. the LaSalle Parish School Board according to Schools At a September student Later that night, Bailey and Superintendent Roy D. assembly, District Attorney some friends try to attend a Breithaupt. Walters told students: “I can party at the Fair Barn in Jena.

80 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited He was attacked and struck 4 Dec 2006 – First day of school after 7 Dec 2006 – Six students are charged with beer bottles; “one of the the fire. Barker reportedly with second-degree murder students was later charged taunted Bailey about getting and conspiracy to commit with simple battery and given beaten up at the party. second-degree murder. The probation.” (Shreveport Times) Reportedly, Barker is confronted other two are Bryant Purvis, 17, by a group of black students and and Mychal Bell, 16. All six are Some reports indicate that is knocked out with one punch. expelled from school (date of Bailey had been invited to the Barker hit his head on concrete expulsion unknown). party. when he fell. Some witnesses say black students kicked him 15 Dec 2006 – The LaSalle Parish 2 Dec 2006 – Bailey goes to the Gotta while he was down. Barker District Attorney’s Office Go convenience store with was treated and released at the announces that Bell will be some friends. One of the white hospital. He attended a social for charged as an adult. Bail is set students who beat him up is at seniors that evening. at $90,000. Bail for the other the store. After a confrontation, students ranges from $70,000 to the white student pulls a 5 Dec 2006 – The School declares $138,000. shotgun from his truck. Three a state of emergency. Four black students take the shotgun students are arrested in Under Louisiana law, anyone away from him and take it to the conjunction with the 4 Dec fight who is 15 must be tried as an police department, reporting -- Carwin Jones, 18; Robert adult if the charge is attempted the incident. Bailey is later Bailey Jr., and Theo Shaw, 17; murder. However, the charge arrested for theft. The white and Jesse Ray Beard, 14. Ryan of battery -- which this was student is not charged. Simmons, 17, Bailey and Shaw subsequently reduced to -- is are also charged in connection not the “adult charge” list. At least two reports say this with the 2 Dec incident: theft was a sawed-off shotgun. of a firearm, second-degree This means the barrel has robbery and disturbing the been shortened, usually with peace. Also arrested: Justin a hacksaw, making it easier Sloan, 22, in connection with to conceal the weapon and the November 30 fight. creating a wider shot pattern. They are legal in Louisiana but From: About.com: U.S Politics must be registered. http://uspolitics.about.com/od/hotpoliticalissues/l/bl_jena6_timeline.htm

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 81 Jena Six Timeline Activities

1. Read the information about the Jena Six case, as reported in About.com’s Jena Six Timeline. Then, as with any analysis of a news article, answer the following questions.

a. WHO are the protagonists in the story? Describe what is told about each of them.

b. WHAT are the significant events of the case? List these in order. Make sure to list just the facts, not the impressions of those who saw them or were involved.

c. WHERE did the story take place? What do we know about the setting of the story?

d. WHEN did this story take place? Do some research to find out about what other important events occurred around the same time.

e. WHY did events unfold the way they did? In this case, it will be important to understand the impressions of those who were involved in the case or who were closely involved.

f. HOW could such a series of events have occurred? What underlying issues (fundamental causes) were in place for these events to have unfolded in this particular way? What specific event (immediate cause) set the case in motion?

2. Of all the events mentioned in the timeline, which do you think was most important? Explain your answer

3. Evaluate the Jena Six case as it relates to the following:

a. Was this story one with local, national or international interest?

b. Was this story one with local, national or international impact?

c. For whom was this timeline intended?

d. What do you think was the purpose of this timeline?

4. Some articles and information sources may have a subtle bias. Reread the timeline and answer the following.

a. How is the School Board portrayed?

b. On 9/1/06, how is the noose incident portrayed? What historical events are invoked? What is the reaction expected from these references?

What quote from the District Attorney is quoted? What kind of reaction from the reader do you think is intended by the author?

c. The author repeated uses the term “reported” when relating the incidents from the case. What is the meaning of this word in this context?

5. In the Jena Six case, the noose incident was only the precipitating (immediate) cause of the trouble in Jena, Louisiana. Explain how one incident led to another, escalating the tension and violence. Which of the protagonists could have stepped in to defuse the situation? At what point in the timeline could these protagonists have acted to reduce the tension? What could they have done?

82 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Reflections on thease C

Quotes on the Leo Frank Case

Judge Leonard Roan: Leo Frank: In 1986 the Georgia

“Gentlemen, I have thought about this “Gentlemen, I was nervous . I was State Board of Pardons case more than any other I have ever completely unstrung . Imagine yourself tried . I am not certain of this man’s guilt . called from sound slumber in the early and Paroles pardoned With all the thought I have put on this hours of the morning . . To see that little case, I am not thoroughly convinced that girl on the dawn of womanhood so cruelly Frank, stating: Frank is guilty or innocent… But I do murdered — it was a scene that would not have to be convinced . The jury was have melted stone ”. “Without attempting to address the convinced . There is no room to doubt question of guilt or innocence, and in that . I feel it is my duty to order that the recognition of the State’s failure to protect motion for a new trial be overruled ”. Conley, referring to a the person of Leo M . Frank and thereby preserve his opportunity for continued comment allegedly by legal appeal of his conviction, and in Governor John Slaton: recognition of the State’s failure to bring Leo Frank: his killers to justice, and as an effort “I can endure misconstruction, abuse to heal old wounds, the State Board of and condemnation,” Slaton said, “but I “Why should I hang? I have wealthy Pardons and Paroles, in compliance cannot stand the constant companionship people in Brooklyn ”. with its Constitutional and statutory of an accusing conscience which would authority, hereby grants to Leo M . Frank remind me that I, as governor of Georgia, a Pardon ”. failed to do what I thought to be right . . Former GA governor Joseph . It means that I must live in obscurity the rest of my days, but I would rather be Brown to Governor Slaton: Minister at plowing in a field than to feel that I had that blood on my hands ”. “Now in all frankness, if your excellency Mary Phagan’s church: wishes to insure lynch law in Georgia, . . “Two thousand years ago another you can strike this dangerous blow at our “This one old Negro would be poor governor, Pontius Pilate, washed his institutions . . by retrying this case . ”. atonement for the life of this innocent hands of a case and turned a Jew over girl .” to a mob . For two thousand years that governor’s name has been accursed . If Leo Frank, at his lynching: today another Jew were lying in his grave Marietta Vigilance because I had failed to do my duty, I “I think more of my wife and my mother would all through life find his blood on than I do of my own life ”. Committee flyer: my hands and would consider myself an assassin through cowardice ”. “NOTICE: You are hereby notified to Oliver Wendell Holmes close up this business and quit Marietta by Saturday night… or else stand the Tom Watson: and Charles Evans Hughes, consequences . We mean to rid Marietta of all Jews by the above date . You can heed “If Frank’s rich connections keep on lying Supreme Court Justices, in this warning or stand the punishment the about this case, SOMETHING BAD committee may see fit to deal out to you ”. WILL HAPPEN ”. their dissent:

“Our grand old Empire State HAS BEEN “Mob law does not become due process of Ralph McGill RAPED! . . Jew money has debased us, law by securing the assent of a terrorized bought us, and sold us — and laughs at jury…I very seriously doubt if the petitioner (Atlanta Constitution) – us . . Hereafter, let no man reproach the (Leo Frank) . .has had due process of law… South with Lynch law: let him remember because of the trial taking place in the John Slaton’s obituary the unendurable provocation; and let him presence of a hostile demonstration and say whether lynch law is not better than seemingly dangerous crowd, thought by “A giant of his day, it was one of destiny’s no law at all ”. the presiding judge to be ready for violence mocking ironies that his great integrity unless a verdict of guilty was rendered ”. should have cost him his political life…”

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 85 Quotes on the Leo Frank Case: Class Activities

Find quotes that reflect the following:

1. There exists real doubt about Leo Frank’s guilt or innocence.

2. It is worth the risk to do what is right.

3. Inflammatory language and language of hate can lead to violence.

4. Leo Frank was innocent.

5. Leo Frank was guilty.

6. Politicians should bend to the will of the people.

7. Politicians should not bend to the will of the people.

8. Threats should be taken seriously.

9. People should do what they think is right in the face of threats.

Choose one of the quotes on the handout. Answer the following questions about the quote:

1. Why did you choose this quote?

2. Do you agree or disagree with the quote? Explain your answer.

3. Who made the statement? What do you know about that person? How does the quote reflect the person who made it?

4. At what point in the case was the statement made? How do you know?

5. What position does the quote take regarding the case and its outcome?

6. What do you suppose was the purpose of this statement? Do you think its author was successful in persuading others to agree? Explain.

86 The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited Chronology: Post-Case Timeline

1916 Pardon - 1982 1983

Hugh Dorsey is elected governor of March 4 – Alonzo Mann, in failing January 4 – Based largely on Alonzo Georgia. health, signs an affidavit Mann’s testimony, the Anti- in which he professes Leo Defamation League submits an Frank’s innocence and Jim application for a posthumous 1918 Conley’s guilt. He admits he pardon for Leo Frank to the saw Conley carrying the body Georgia Board of Pardons and Hugh Dorsey is re-elected governor of of Mary Phagan near the door Paroles. Georgia. leading to the basement of the December 22 – the Georgia Board of National Pencil Company on Pardons and Paroles denies April 26, 1913. He says that the motion for a pardon, the 1920 Conley threatened to kill him reason being that while Alonzo if he ever told anyone what Mann’s testimony might Tom Watson is elected senator from he had seen. Mann’s parents incriminate Jim Conley, it did Georgia. advised him to keep quiet. He not conclusively prove the was telling the story now to innocence of Leo Frank. unburden his soul. He took 1957 several lie detector tests while telling his story to a group of Lucille Frank, Leo’s widow, dies in 1986 reporters for the Tennessean, Atlanta. a newspaper in Nashville, TN. March 11 – the Georgia Board of The tests indicated Mann was Pardons and Paroles finally 1962 telling the truth. issues a posthumous pardon to March 7 – The Tennessean ran the story Leo Frank, based on the state’s (exact date unknown) of Alonzo Mann’s confession. failure to protect him while in Jim Conley dies. November 10 – Alonzo Mann repeated custody; it does not officially his story in a videotaped absolve him of the crime. statement in Atlanta.

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, Atlanta, GA, Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited 87 The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum 1440 Spring Street, NW Atlanta, Georgia 30309 678/222-3700 www.thebreman.org

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